Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in early March after strikes from Israel and the U.S. aimed at destroying Tehran’s military strength and its ability to build a nuclear weapon. At least 20% of the world’s oil travels through the strait each year, and its closure caused oil prices to skyrocket for weeks.
The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, signed by both parties last week, requires Iran to immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz and charge no fees for at least 60 days while the two sides negotiate.
Well before the memorandum was signed, Iran said it would maintain control over the strait after the war and that ships transiting through would need to pay a fee for navigational and security services provided by Iranian authorities.
U.S. and European leaders have routinely rejected allowing Iran to control the strait, saying that charging fees would violate international law.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended the talks Thursday, reaffirmed that the Strait of Hormuz would be toll-free under any final agreement with Iran.
“You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee — whatever you want to call it, it’s a game of semantics. The reality of it is that no country on earth has a right to charge for the use of international waterways, and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal,” Mr. Rubio said.
Mr. Rubio finished a three-day visit to the Persian Gulf countries, aimed at shoring up support for the memorandum. Gulf leaders are particularly interested in ensuring that the final agreement between the U.S. and Iran provides some guarantees for regional security.
Mr. Rubio assured Gulf leaders that any comprehensive deal with Iran would include a settlement of Iran’s ballistic missile, drone and proxy operations, which he said have destabilized the region.
The memorandum of understanding does not address Iran’s missile and drone program, the destruction of which was a key war goal of the Trump administration, or Tehran’s support for proxy groups such as the Houthis, Hamas or Hezbollah.
President Trump also said Thursday that he was open to Iran keeping its ballistic missiles because other countries in the region have them as well.
The U.S. and Iran continued to disagree publicly over the use of frozen assets.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly and a key negotiator in peace talks, rebutted U.S. claims — floated by officials earlier this week — that Tehran would use its unfrozen assets to buy American farm products.
“America falsely claims our unfrozen assets will buy their agriculture. Interesting,” he wrote on X. “The only crop we’re harvesting is what you planted: decades of mistrust. It’s organic, abundant, and homegrown. But apparently, the U.S. only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks.”
The memorandum says the U.S. and Iran must “mutually agree on the procedures related to the release of these funds” before Iran can access the nearly $24 billion in frozen assets.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly said that the release of the funds would be conditional and could be used only in ways the U.S. approved.
“As the MOU states, the United States must approve how the funds are used. As Vice President [J.D.] Vance announced this week, if Iranian assets are released, they will be used to purchase American agricultural products to feed the Iranian people,” a U.S. official told The Washington Times.
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