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Iran will charge foreign ships passing through the Straits of Hormuz under a new law approved by the country’s parliament on Monday in anticipation of what the Trump administration is calling ‘Economic D-Day’ against Tehran, to be launched by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission on Sunday voted to approve Article 3 of the Strategic Action Plan to Ensure Security and Progress in the Strait of Hormuz, as reported by Mehr News Agency. Ships from countries that are allowed to pass through the strait will have to pay for maritime navigation services, environmental protection, fuel, insurance, safety and other services provided by Iran in local currency, such as rials, or in any other currency that Iran deems fit.
The article by US Treasury Secretary under Trump, Bessent, appears in the Financial Times today. He writes that an “endgame” for US efforts to bring down Iran has now been reached. And he ominously notes that “any nation that serves as a financial artery of a withering regime should expect to share in its isolation”. He is clearly warning China and the other trading nations of Iran of the economic onslaught that is about to be unleashed upon them.
The Iranian rial hit an all-time low on the open market on Sunday as it traded above 2 million to the US dollar on the black market. Iran is in a full-scale economic, military and security war, said Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian in a statement carried by Iranian state media on Sunday.
In a threatening statement, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said that any country from the Gulf region joining the US in economic war against Iran would be considered an enemy by Tehran. In addition to targeting the oil exports of such a country, he said the Strait of Hormuz “is closed and will not open until America changes its behavior and fulfills its obligations.”
Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir arrived in Iran today with his delegation to discuss various matters of mutual interest as well as issues of region. He will also be seeking revival of Pakistan’s efforts to mediate between U.S. and Iran for a peace agreement that Islamabad had brokered and was guaranteeing as the signatory to an interim agreement that had collapsed last month. Both the countries are engaged in military as well as economic confrontation.
China continued to support a diplomatic solution to the conflict in a belated statement that was timed to coincide with the 2 p.m. press conference held by U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent to unveil sanctions program in full.
The Strait of Hormuz remains partly blocked by Iran with some 20% of normal volumes of traffic able to pass through the chokepoint where once some 20% of the world’s oil traded at sea was moved through its narrow waters.
