Operational Excellence (OPEX) Insight – Tuesday - June 09, 2026: Day 100: Iran Demands Hormuz Transit Tolls, U.S. Says "Unacceptable".
Góc Nhìn Vận Hành Xuất Sắc – Thứ Ba, Ngày 09/06/2026: Ngày Thứ 100: Iran Đòi Thu Phí Eo Biển Hormuz, Mỹ Nói "Không Thể Chấp Nhận".
Welcome To Operational Excellence (OPEX) Insight Article For The Paid Subscriber-Only Edition.
This is the bilingual post in English and Vietnamese. Vietnamese is below.
Đây là bài viết song ngữ Anh-Việt. Tiếng Việt ở bên dưới.
English
PART 1 – OFFICIAL INFORMATION
On June 8, 2026, Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali declared in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia (Russia) that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, but with new conditions: Iran and Oman would jointly determine a transit fee applied to all commercial vessels passing through the strait, with the fee depending on the type of vessel, the cargo transported, and “geopolitical factors.” This declaration was made on precisely day 100 since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively blockaded on February 28, 2026, after the United States and Israel launched an air campaign against Iran codenamed Operation Epic Fury, destroying military and nuclear facilities, and resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran retaliated with missiles and drones targeting Israel, U.S. military bases in the region, and Gulf states allied with the United States. On March 4, 2026, Iran officially declared the Strait of Hormuz “closed,” with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warning it would attack any vessel attempting to pass, while simultaneously laying sea mines across the shipping lane.
Before the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz carried 25% of global seaborne oil and 20% of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with approximately 3,000 vessels transiting each month, equivalent to roughly 95 vessels per day. As of May 31, 2026, commercial traffic through the strait had fallen to just 11% of pre-crisis levels, approximately 10 vessels per day. The International Energy Agency (abbreviated as IEA) called this “the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio immediately rejected Iran’s transit fee proposal: “It can’t happen. It would be unacceptable.” The American response was grounded in the principle of transit passage through international straits as codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (abbreviated as UNCLOS), 1982. Article 38 of UNCLOS establishes the right of freedom of navigation through international straits, and Article 44 explicitly states that states bordering straits “shall not hamper transit passage” and may not suspend this right for any reason. However, a critical legal reality is that Iran has never ratified UNCLOS, creating a legal grey zone regarding whether UNCLOS provisions are binding on Iran.
The 100-day Hormuz blockade was not a straight line but a chain of successive escalations. On April 12, after the Islamabad negotiations between the U.S. and Iran failed, President Trump declared a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, preventing vessels that had paid fees to Iran from passing through. On April 17, Iran announced a temporary pause of the blockade during the Lebanon ceasefire, but just one day later (April 18) Iran re-imposed the blockade, pushing Brent oil prices up 7% in a single trading session. Since then, the strait has remained effectively blockaded until Ambassador Jalali’s declaration on June 8. If Iran succeeds in imposing transit fees, this would be the first precedent in modern maritime history of a nation collecting fees on an international strait, with potential implications for every other strategic strait in the world, from Malacca to Bab el-Mandeb.
