Trump Announces 20% Fee on Hormuz Shipping Amid Escalating Iran Conflict

Some sources report Trump announced the 20% fee, while others state he scrapped the plan and replaced it with trade and investment agreements.

Some sources report the US reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, while others state the US had already reimposed the blockade.

Some sources report the US and Iran exchanged attacks, while others state the attacks were part of a larger conflict.

The US president also said that the strait is closed only for Iran

The abrupt about-face from the US president was the latest twist in a conflict that has now lasted more than four months.

US President Donald Trump said air strikes on Iran will continue until he says "it's enough," as Tehran and Washington stepped up attacks in a battle to control the Strait of Hormuz, in what the United Nations called a "huge setback" for civilians in the region.

The president’s proposal to impose a fee on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz threatened to increase global energy prices.

Donald Trump backs away from fee, says regional countries will instead invest in US in return for transit protection.

US President Donald Trump stepped back from a proposal to charge a 20 per cent transit fee to guard the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway as part of the conflict with Iran, saying on Tuesday he would instead seek investment deals with Gulf states. US forces had carried out waves of attacks for the third night in a row after Tehran said it had closed the strait, prompting Trump on Monday to reinstate a blockade of Iranian shipping and propose the fee. But just a little under five hours before the fee had been due to come into effect at 2000 GMT, Trump said the strait was open to all shipping traffic except that of Iran. “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” he said in a post on Truth Social. Iran reports new strikes, sirens in Kuwait The governor’s office of Iran’s Qeshm Island, on the Strait of Hormuz, said it was hit by a US projectile at around 7pm on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported. Meanwhile, a US projectile exploded near a water and electricity facility on Iran’s Kish Island, the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said. State media also reported an explosion heard in Andimeshk in southern Khuzestan province. Iran had earlier hit back by attacking a US Army base in Jordan with ballistic missiles while Bahrain, which hosts a US naval base, said it had fended off an Iranian aerial attack. Jordan said it had shot down four ballistic missiles and explosions were heard in Manama, Bahrain’s capital. In the early evening, Kuwait said its armed forces were engaging with “hostile” aerial targets, and the state news agency said sirens had sounded in the country. The worsening attacks had increased doubts that a memorandum of understanding signed last month would lead to a permanent halt in the war, which has disrupted global energy supplies and raised fears of a rise in inflation globally. Shippers had opposed Hormuz fee plan The move to impose US fees had drawn sharp criticism. The UN shipping agency said it opposed any fees for straits used in international navigation and that there was no legal basis for introducing mandatory tolls on strait transits. Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-largest container shipping company, said it would be “fundamentally wrong”. Trump said later on Tuesday that he did not like the concept of a fee for using the strait and said countries had called him to say they wanted to invest in the U.S. instead of being charged a fee. It was not immediately clear what Gulf states had agreed to, if anything. Trump did not mention any commitments by them, saying only in his post: “Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future.” Oil prices rose about 2pc to a one-month high on Tuesday after the US reimposed the naval blockade on Iran and as the renewed attacks between Washington and Tehran heightened concerns over energy flows. Before the war, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas traffic passed through the waterway daily. If the US were to have imposed a 20pc fee, it could have generated around $240 million a day. Lebanon-Israel talks Despite the attacks, regional analysts said the hostilities remained within controlled boundaries, for now, with both sides seeking leverage for an eventual peace deal, but that there was still a risk of fighting spinning out of control. “I doubt the two sides will resume a full war, especially as Trump will suffer though there is also a distinct possibility that the Iranians will overplay their hand. That is true of Trump too, of course,” said Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center. The conflict has proved unpopular in the US, where gasoline prices have risen since the start of the war and congressional elections are looming in November. Half of those surveyed in a Reuters poll said they believed the war had not been worth its costs. The US and Israel struck Iran on February 28, and Iran attacked Israel and Gulf states that host US bases in a war that also reignited conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, killed thousands and displaced millions. Lebanon and Israel resumed talks on Tuesday in Rome, with Beirut seeking progress towards securing an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon under a US-brokered deal.

Earlier US President Donald Trump said he had abandoned plans to charge a 20% fee for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz in favor of trade and investment agreements

According to the US president, he was contacted by the leaders of the Gulf countries

Trump drops a 24-hour-old vow to charge cargo ships for using the Strait as the US continues its battle to break Iran's hold on the waterway.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday abandoned plans to impose a 20 per cent charge on commercial cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz, less than a day after unveiling the proposal, while pressing ahead with a naval blockade targeting Iranian trade. Trump said the proposed fee would be replaced by trade and investment agreements with Gulf states following discussions with regional leaders. “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the...

The US president has decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States

The United States will have a full Blockade, but only on Ships coming to and from Iranian ports, or carrying anything have to do with Iranian cargo, the US president said

Trump says the US will start charging a cargo fee for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Change of US position on free navigation comes as two tankers hit by Iranian cruise missiles. Plus, the international outpouring of love for the late actor Sam Neill Good morning. The US has launched its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran, hours after Donald Trump said Washington would reinstate a maritime blockade on the country and charge ships for safe passage. The UAE said two ⁠national tankers ⁠were ​targeted by two Iranian cruise missiles in ⁠the southern lane of the strait ⁠of Hormuz in Omani territorial ​waters, ‌killing one ‌Indian crew member and wounding ‌eight others, including four seriously. Iran and the US are in theory nearly halfway through the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war, which began in February with the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. In reality, that deal has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait of Hormuz, resulting in the near-total collapse of an interim ceasefire and worrying world leaders that the conflict could fully resume. How has Trump changed his position on tolls? On Monday, Trump said the US would demand a 20% tariff on all cargoes shipped through the strait of Hormuz. Until now, the US had said the strait should remain open to all without tolls – as it was before Washington and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February. Any attempt by the US or Iran – which has also proposed tolls – to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and would be likely to cause further economic disruption far beyond the region. What did Nordone say about her appointment? In brief remarks, Nordone, 64, said: “Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him. I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States. I think this is what Lindsey would have wanted, and I plan to honor him in this way. I miss you more than I can even put into words, but I’m going to do this. I got it.” Continue reading...

President Trump announced a 20 percent fee on cargo through the waterway, despite his own administration’s position that such fees violate international law.

Donald Trump said the United States would be “reimbursed” through a levy amounting to 20 per cent of the value of cargo passing through the waterway

The US president added that Washington protects all Arab countries of the Persian Gulf

US President Donald Trump said the United States intends to blockade Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and collect fees from other countries' shipping traffic as reimbursement. The statement came after a new wave of US and Iranian air strikes in the region on July 12 and 13.

President Donald Trump reimposed a US naval blockade on Iranian ports on Monday and vowed hefty fees for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran mockingly pledged to charge a lower rate for passage through the strategic waterway. FRANCE 24's Jennie Shin speaks with Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Former State Department Middle East Analyst.

"All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait," the US president said

The move comes after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire for the third weekend in a row, raising the specter of a return to all-out war after a shaky ceasefire took effect in June.

Trump declared the US would collect a 20% fee on all Hormuz cargo as "Guardian of the Strait," flipping the script on Iran's own toll demands, while US forces struck dozens of targets in Iran and the IRGC hit Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Oman in the biggest exchange since the April ceasefire.

Trump said on social media that Iranian ships will no longer be able to travel through the Strait and America would charge a 20% toll on eligible cargo, as the conflict with Iran has intensified after peace talks failed to deliver meaningful progress.

Trump's announcement comes after another major exchange of fire cast fresh uncertainty over efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict. Before Iran asserted control over the Strait of Hormuz after the war began, about one-fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies moved through the strategic waterway.

Iran rejects any US control of strait as both sides trade attacks in major threat to negotiations to end war.

President Donald Trump said the United States may become the "guardian angel" of the Strait of Hormuz after a new wave of air strikes, sparked by activity in the key waterway, rocked the Gulf region.

Iran has nothing, the US president said