Iran is working to create a system for authorized passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, strengthening control over the vital waterway, which Tehran believes could extend beyond the war with the US and Israel, the Financial Times reports, writes UNN.
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US President Donald Trump repeatedly demanded that Tehran open the narrow strait, through which about 20 percent of the world's oil exports passed, before Iran closed it to almost all vessels at the beginning of the war.
Iran's foreign ministry said this week that "non-hostile" vessels would be allowed to pass "in coordination with competent Iranian authorities," but that the US, Israel, or any other "aggressors" would not.
Iran claims control over the Strait of Hormuz passage and sets conditions for vessels25.03.26, 05:00
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said Tehran would implement a new order in the strait after the war, insisting that the country exercises sovereignty over it, "even if some may want to consider it international waters."
"In the future, we aim to establish new arrangements for safe passage," Aragchi told state television on Wednesday.
Such claims raise far-reaching questions about access to one of the world's most important shipping lanes, as well as a host of practical problems for shipping companies, the publication notes.
"It's the least straightforward strait in history," said Tom Sharpe, a former Royal Navy commander. "When you go through it, your threat is from all sides."
On Thursday, Trump again extended the deadline for Iran to open the strait to April 6, otherwise it would face strikes on its energy infrastructure.
Trump suspends strikes on Iranian energy facilities until April 626.03.26, 22:32
Before the conflict, about 135 vessels passed through this waterway daily. But after the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran, traffic significantly decreased. According to S&P Global, only 116 transits were made between March 1 and 25, a 97% decrease compared to the same period in February.
The vessels that made the passage were largely associated with Chinese, Indian, or Gulf country owners. Several of them were "shadow fleet" vessels sanctioned by Western powers for trading Iranian oil.
Some vessels paid Iran up to $2 million to ensure safe passage through the Persian Gulf, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence and one person familiar with a shipowner whose vessel passed through it.
Aladdin Boroujerdi, a senior member of Iran's parliament, told state television on Sunday that any vessel passing through the strategic waterway pays a $2 million fee. "A new regime is being introduced in the waterway," he said.
The approval process involved government-to-government negotiations with Iran through embassies in the respective countries, said Martin Kelly, head of consulting at EOS Risk Group, a crisis management firm.
The vessel then received a code, which was broadcast on VHF 16 radio – the international distress frequency – as it approached the strait. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities checked the vessel's documents, including where the cargo was headed and the crew's nationality, Kelly said.
None of the cargo that passed through the strait since the start of hostilities was destined for the US and Europe. Most of it went to East Asia, and some also to East Africa and South America, according to vessel tracking data.
The route through the strait lies entirely within Iranian territorial waters, not along conventional shipping lanes. Analysts suggest this allows Iran to visually verify vessel data, despite US attacks on its radar and observation posts.
"There's a clear structure, a clear sense of leadership," Kelly said.
Two Pakistanis involved in back-channel contacts with Iran said some third-country vessels were changing flags to Pakistani to pass through the strait.
"Many shipping companies are changing flags to sail under Pakistani registration," one of them, a diplomat, said. The other said these arrangements were intended as an "olive branch to Trump."
The Iranian embassy in Madrid said Tehran was "receptive" to any requests for Spanish vessels to pass through the strait, stating that it considered Spain "a country that adheres to international law."
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was the first European leader to criticize the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Shipping companies that need to pay for passage will have to circumvent sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which have been designated a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and other Western countries, the publication notes.
But, as Claire McCloskey, former head of compliance at the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), reported, Iran has created secret payment networks.
"They have a ready 'shadow banking' system for selling their oil, for accessing controlled technologies, and for funding weapons programs," McCloskey said. "It would be very easy for Iran to use shell company accounts in banks and exchange houses around the world to receive payments."
India's Ministry of External Affairs said Iran was not asking for anything in return for guarantees of safe passage. European and American shipowners told the FT they were unaware of any payment system.
Iranians pointed to historical precedents of governments charging for the use of strategic waterways.
Yahya Ale Eshagh, head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, cited the Suez Canal as an example of a waterway for which vessels had to pay.
But Johanna Hjalmarsson, an associate professor at the University of Southampton's Institute of Maritime Law, said the Suez Canal was a different case, as it is Egypt's internal waters governed by the 1888 Convention of Constantinople.
As a coastal state under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Tehran was allowed to "regulate traffic and suspend passage for security reasons," but not to "impede innocent passage" or "discriminate 'formally or in fact' against vessels from different states," Hjalmarsson said.
Neither Iran nor the US are parties to UNCLOS, but even non-signatory countries are generally expected to abide by its rules.
Tehran's prolonged efforts to establish control over the Strait of Hormuz may also ultimately diminish the importance of this waterway.
"If Iran starts white- or blacklisting shipping through the strait, Gulf countries will look for alternatives, such as building pipelines," one regional diplomat said.
Iran's top diplomat accused the US of closing the Strait of Hormuz22.03.26, 21:21