President Donald Trump escalated military action and announced a sweeping new maritime policy in the span of hours Monday, ordering a blockade of Iranian ports and demanding a 20% tariff on cargo transiting the strait of Hormuz, even as American forces unleashed their third consecutive night of airstrikes on Iranian military positions.
"These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz," US Central Command said in a statement.
Trump, speaking on conservative radio, promised the punishment would intensify. "We're going to hit them very hard tonight and we're going to hit them hard tomorrow, and there's not a damn thing they can do about it," he said, adding that Iran "has nothing, nothing going, other than they have big mouths."
The blockade announcement marks a dramatic reversal of stated US policy. Until now, Washington had insisted the strait remain open to all maritime traffic without tolls, a position Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced just last month. "No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That's existing international law," Rubio said then.
Trump now proposes the opposite. He said the US should become the "guardian" or "guardian angel" of the waterway and be reimbursed for controlling it. The 20% tariff proposal came via his Truth Social platform, where he suggested America should extract payment for keeping shipping safe.
The Joint Maritime Information Center confirmed Monday evening that the US Navy would begin enforcing the blockade on Tuesday night, covering all Iranian ports, oil terminals, and coastal areas. Vessels attempting entry or departure without authorization "are subject to interception, diversion and capture," the center stated, noting that noncompliant ships "may be legally compelled with force."
The practical mechanics of maintaining such a blockade remain unclear, as does the legal framework for enforcing it unilaterally.
Global shipping organizations pushed back immediately. The International Maritime Organization, the UN agency overseeing international maritime safety, rejected the toll concept outright. "IMO stands firmly against charging fees for passage through straits used for international navigation. There is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait," the agency said.
Iran fired back with accusations of its own. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Hossein Mohebi said the US had "seriously endangered the security of the world's oil and gas supply and must be held accountable." Tehran vowed to "continue to exercise sovereignty over and management of the strait of Hormuz" and promised that any US moves would be "strongly contested."
The escalating confrontation comes as an interim ceasefire agreement, meant to establish a path to permanent peace, has deteriorated into a cycle of tit-for-tat strikes. Both sides launched the heaviest drone and missile exchanges in recent weeks, with Iranian attacks reaching into Qatar and the United Arab Emirates by Sunday, targeting locations that had previously been off-limits.
Oil markets responded to the turmoil. Brent crude rose 7.8% to $81.92 a barrel Monday, though still well below the $120 peak reached earlier in the conflict. The price movements underscore how vulnerable global energy supplies remain to further escalation.
Trump has peppered his public statements with claims of military dominance throughout the conflict that often lack grounding in verifiable facts. He told Fox News the US was "beating up" Iran while simultaneously suggesting willingness to return to negotiations, though specifics remained vague.
Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, signaled the Islamic Republic's hardening stance on social media Sunday. "The era of one-sided deals is OVER," he wrote. "We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking."
The two countries are technically in the first half of a 60-day interim agreement meant to pave the way for permanent peace. In practice, that accord has unraveled into daily military operations, raising fresh concerns about a return to full-scale war.
The conflict traces to February's US-Israeli assassination of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in airstrikes on Iranian port cities. Thousands have died since, with casualties concentrated in Iran and Lebanon. American military bases across the region have endured Iranian attacks, and the ripple effects have disrupted global shipping, elevated energy costs, and fueled inflation worldwide.
For Trump ahead of November's congressional elections, the rising petrol prices carry real political risk. Inflation tied to Middle East turmoil remains a sensitive issue with voters.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump's toll demand is a stunning policy reversal that hands Iran diplomatic ammunition while accomplishing what Tehran itself has threatened to do, which is restrict maritime traffic through one of the world's most critical chokepoints."
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