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Iran wants to charge ships tolls for passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is claiming sovereignty over the waterway in the middle of the war, and it's important because about one-fifth of the world's oil and gas goes through that waterway. NPR international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: The fear of an Iranian attack has forced hundreds of ships to drop anchor in and around the Strait of Hormuz since the war began. Iran says no vessels with a link to the U.S. or Israel will be allowed to pass. But a senior Iranian lawmaker said a new system involving transit fees will be implemented for other ships.
JACK KENNEDY: It allows the Iranian leadership, as it currently stands, to project a level of power into the Gulf and into the strait.
NORTHAM: Jack Kennedy is with S&P Global Market Intelligence. He says the idea of charging a toll for ships to transfer through the Strait of Hormuz is likely based on a model set by the Iranian-aligned Houthis in Yemen a couple of years ago, when they were targeting ships in the Red Sea.
KENNEDY: There does seem to be credible reporting that they were charging vessels an - unspecified sums of money in order to secure unmolested transit. So there's probably been a bit of a template set there by the Houthi.
NORTHAM: The Iranian lawmaker suggested fees could be upwards of $2 million per vessel.
BRIDGET DIAKUN: We have two instances where we know there's been payments.
NORTHAM: Bridget Diakun is a senior risk and compliance analyst at Lloyd's List Intelligence. She says not every ship will pay. Diakun says most of the roughly 100 ships that have transferred through the strait over the past month are Iranian-owned or flagged but also include Indian, Pakistani and Chinese vessels, which Diakun says have worked out an agreement with Iran.
DIAKUN: They've been, like, sorting this out diplomatically. But basically, everything we can track going through right now - it's going through some level of coordination with Iran.
NORTHAM: Martin Kelly is with EOS Risk Group, a crisis management company. He says approval for a ship to now pass through the strait requires government-to-government negotiations. Kelly says if accepted, a ship is given a code to be broadcast over a radio channel.
MARTIN KELLY: Then the ship will transit towards the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian, maybe, will reach out over the radio to contact the vessel. During the approach, they will be met with an Iranian patrol boat that will then escort the vessel.
NORTHAM: Kelly says the ship will be escorted into Iranian territorial waters rather than the regular route down the center of the Strait of Hormuz. Kelly says that serves two purposes - so Iranians can make sure it's the correct ship and check paperwork. Kelly says the other purpose is...
KELLY: By publicizing that commercial shipping is taking the route inside Iranian waters, it's demonstrating to the world that Iran is actually in control of the waterway.
NORTHAM: Kelly says that one of the demands by Iran for a negotiated settlement with the U.S. is that the international community recognizes Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
KELLY: But by an international law, it's an international strait. Nobody controls an international waterway in this sense.
NORTHAM: Kennedy with S&P Global says this is part of an attempt by Iran to change the prewar status quo of unimpeded access through the Strait of Hormuz.
KENNEDY: They are comparing the transit through the strait to, say, what the Egyptian government does with the Suez Canal, which is to have a toll-based system. Obviously, that's not a like-for-like comparison, but you can see where the Iranian leadership is trying to push that narrative.
NORTHAM: As Iran has proven, it only takes the odd strike or even the threat of an attack to shut down traffic, giving Iran enormous power over the Strait of Hormuz.
Jackie Northam, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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