Frozen copy retrieved 2026-07-13T20:00:00Z for audit 2026-07-14T03-35-17Z. Original URL: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/13/trump-says-us-will-become-guardian-of-strait-of-hormuz-and-collect-tolls. The Stochastic Parrot does not host or redistribute; this snapshot exists solely so that quoted spans remain verifiable if the original page changes. Character offsets below index into this plain text; highlighted spans are the quotes cited in the audit.

Trump says US will become 'guardian' of Strait of Hormuz and collect tolls

Al Jazeera · back to the audit
Trump says US will become 'guardian' of Strait of Hormuz and collect tolls. United States President Donald Trump has said the US will restart its naval blockade of Iran and "become the guardian" of the Strait of Hormuz, amid the ongoing escalation with Iran that threatens to derail efforts towards a more lasting peace. "We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran's ships or customers from entering or leaving," Trump said on Truth Social. "The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as 'THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT'," Trump added, "but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World." In a statement, the UN's shipping agency said it opposed any imposition of fees to cross the strait. "IMO stands firmly against charging fees for passage through straits used for international navigation," the International Maritime Organization said. "There is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait." In June, Trump's own secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had rejected the notion of any country charging tolls to pass through international waterways. "No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That's existing international law," Rubio said, at the time responding to the possibility of Iran levying fees for passage. The US relaunching its naval blockade represents another key provision of the initial agreement dissolving. Iran has repeatedly rejected the prospect of the US taking control of the strait. "As previously warned, we will not, under any circumstances, allow the US to interfere in the management of the Strait of Hormuz," the spokesperson said. Some officials in Iran have maintained that the agreement allows Tehran to still assert control of passage through the strait.