US Offers Tehran a Trade-Off: Frozen Funds in Exchange for Abandoning Hormuz Toll Payments
Iran has insisted on managing the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Oman, with a plan to impose a service fee on ships passing through the Strait, despite US opposition.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the US and Oman are looking for ways to break Iran’s insistence on charging tolls for ships to pass through the Strait. Their chief lever in indirect talks was a promise to unfreeze some of the $100 billion in Iranian funds held overseas.
On Friday, Axios said US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who visited Doha last Tuesday, have been trying to convey to the Iranians that their demand for tolls could blow up a US-Iran deal that would ultimately be far more lucrative for Iran.
“The US message to Iran was ‘Think bigger,’” a US official told Axios.
The official claimed the sums Iran could generate from developing and selling oil and other resources freely — if the US lifted all sanctions under a deal — “would be 100 times more valuable to them than using a gangster tactic to try and charge a toll.”
Also citing people familiar with the talks, WSJ said the US and Doha are looking for ways to break Iran’s insistence on charging tolls for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington offering to unfreeze some of the $100 billion in Iranian funds held overseas.
The US diplomats offered Iran a trade-off: relinquish its claim to control the strait and renounce toll payments in exchange for billions of dollars of unfrozen funds, the newspaper wrote.
Talks had initially been progressing toward the release of $6 billion held in Qatar, but Iran’s decision to block the strait set back the release, it added.
In return, Tehran estimates that charging for security, safety and environmental services in the strait would bring in $40 billion a year in revenue for states involved. The idea was rejected by Washington.
The Iranians are insisting they have joint sovereignty over the strait, along with Oman, and that both countries will administer it and request passage fees after the 60-day term of the MOU ends.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi stressed that the Strait of Hormuz is defined under Iran’s command.
“Hormuz is defined under Iran’s command, not CENTCOM,” Gharibabadi wrote in a post on his X account early Thursday, following his return from Doha.
Iran’s military command has also threatened ships that attempt to cross the Strait of Hormuz using unapproved routes with a “forceful response.”
Omani Proposal
Meanwhile, negotiators from the US and Iran are actively discussing a recent Omani proposal regarding the management and transit of the Strait of Hormuz after Muscat proposed a voluntary maritime fund as a compromise.
The proposal, under which shipping companies would pay service fees to use the strait, mentions voluntary fees rather than a mandatory toll.
Sources said Oman has already made contacts with oil and shipping companies to explore their willingness to contribute to the maritime fund, but Tehran insists on controlling traffic and collecting transit fees.
An informed source said the plan was recently handed over to US negotiators, who had some reservations about the proposal but intend to discuss it with the Omani side.
Another source added that the proposal would eventually be an indirect form of the toll system that Iran benefits from.
Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies travel, have been largely blocked since the war broke out with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Galibaf: We Will Not Allow US Interference
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said his country is resolved that the United States would not be allowed to interfere in the management of the Strait of Hormuz.
During a meeting with He WeiHe, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, Ghalibaf said Iran and Oman have come to an agreement regarding the regulation of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, based on Article V of the Memorandum of Understanding with the United States.
Article V of the memorandum commits Iran to work with Oman and the other Gulf littoral states to determine the future administration of navigation and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with international law and the sovereign rights of the states bordering the waterway.
The Speaker said Iran is actively moving forward with the implementation of this new maritime framework and intends to hold further consultations with other countries bordering the Gulf.
