By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2026-06-24 00:17:52 | Updated at 2026-06-24 04:12:50
5 hours ago
Crude oil tankers, bulk carriers and vessels sit anchored around Qaboos Port on June 22, 2026 in Muscat, Oman.
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Whatever else comes out of the negotiations with Iran, the United States cannot allow Iran to set any kind of toll or “user fee” on ships passing the Strait of Hormuz.
President Donald Trump couldn’t send any worse signal of weakness to the rest of the world, both our allies and our enemies.
Even the “insurance” racket (protection money) version would devastate Western shipping, slamming the US economy far more than the disruptions from Iran’s recent temporary closure.
It’s just madness, abandoning a bedrock American principle going back to when President Thomas Jefferson sent the Navy and Marines to the shores of Tripoli, one vital to our national interests.
No nation can have any rights or sovereignty whatsoever over the Strait of Hormuz, which has always been and must remain exclusively international waters.
Let this pass, and the Houthis will soon charge for the nearby Bab al Mandab; next someone will hold the Strait of Malacca hostage.
Heck, Britain and France need cash; why shouldn’t they toll the English Channel?
Spain and Morocco, the Strait of Gibraltar.
Freedom of navigation is real, longstanding international law, far different from all the piffle modern lefties try to add.
The hint in Point No. 5 of the Memorandum of Understanding is bad enough: Iran and Oman will “define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussions with other Persian Gulf Littoral States.”
Vice President JD Vance seems to think it’s fine that those nations “will figure out a proper security framework for the straits.”
Nuts to that!
However much the Iranians demand it, just tell them no: It’s not like they’ve put anything hard and real on the table, anyway.
Even President Barack Obama and his idiots never tried a giveaway on this scale.
Yet here’s a joint statement from Oman and Iran claiming “sovereignty and sovereign rights” over the Strait, supposedly their “territorial waters,” vowing to work out “the future administration of navigation” and “the services that will be provided in this regard and the costs associated with them.”
Iran’s already telling all ships to register with its newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority to ensure safe passage and to sign up to buy Iranian “insurance” for when the 60-day cease-fire expires.
This is a Mafia-style protection racket, pure and simple.
The only “security” ships would conceivably need in the Gulf is from Iranian attacks, and that’s why we have the US Navy and Marines.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted “no country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway.”
Well, if so, why did the Secretary of State allow negotiators to give Iran and Oman a say at all?
Has the president gotten his secretaries of Commerce, Energy, Transportation and Treasury to weigh in here?
Whoever is selling the idea in the Oval Offfice that it’s OK to even consider sacrificing free passage in the strait should be barred from the White House.
Trump claims Iran wants a peace accord more than the United States.
Then his team should act like it, set the terms — and ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains as open and free as it’s always been.
