Japan tells Iran it will not accept transit fees for the Strait of Hormuz

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a twenty-minute call on Wednesday that free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz must be assured without additional costs, The Japan Times reported. It was their fourth conversation since the war began in late February. Japanese wire service Jiji headlined the message as a refusal to accept Hormuz transit tolls. Takaichi also raised the Bab el-Mandeb strait and asked Iran to press the Houthi movement toward restraint.

What Iran is actually proposing is contested. Iranian outlets report that parliament has reviewed a preliminary bill imposing transit fees averaging between $1.5 million and $2 million per vessel, scaled by cargo, while barring American, Israeli and other vessels Tehran classifies as hostile. With more than 30,000 transits a year before the war, Iranian projections of the revenue run into the billions of dollars. The state-linked agency Nournews has claimed the first fees have already been deposited in the national treasury. CBS has reported that the framework being negotiated through Oman does not include tolls, and Iranian outlets dispute that account. Iran's lead negotiator has said the strait will not return to pre-war conditions and that Tehran will charge fees for services.

Washington's position is also inconsistent. President Donald Trump has described a Hormuz toll as a beautiful thing in one interview, while the Treasury has warned that shippers paying Iran a transit fee face sanctions and the Navy has said it will seize such vessels. Trump has meanwhile shifted from strikes toward economic pressure, telling reporters, in remarks carried by The Hindu, that the United States is only semi-negotiating and is watching Iran's inflation and lack of money. United States Central Command said 55 commercial vessels had been redirected as of 9 August, up from 35 a week earlier, with two ships disabled and two boarded.

Oil has not repriced sharply on the exchange. Brent settled at $88.98 a barrel on Wednesday and West Texas Intermediate at $83.27, each up seven cents. The waterway carried roughly a quarter of seaborne oil and a fifth of global liquefied natural gas before the closure.