How Iran can try to control the Strait of Hormuz – and benefit from it

London – When the US and Israel launched their joint war on Iran in February, Tehran responded almost immediately with what has proven to be one of its most powerful weapons – the ability to disable the Strait of Hormuz.

By shooting or threatening to attack any ships that did not seek its permission, Iran effectively blocked this major shipping lane, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passed mostly in tankers. The shipping gridlock has sent the price of oil soaring, affecting almost everyone in the world, including Americans who continue to face higher prices at the pump.

Transportation has grown slightly since the signing of the a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran two weeks ago. That framework agreement calls for the lifting of US and Iranian restrictions and free passage of the strait for at least 60 days, a period set by the MoU for the US and Iran to negotiate a comprehensive peace deal.

But some experts believe that whatever the two sides end up reaching, the Strait of Hormuz will never return to its pre-war status.

“We are no longer dealing with the traditional maritime system in the Strait of Hormuz, as we know it, that existed before the war,” said Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told CBS News. “This new navigational order was created by Iran, and what Iran is trying to do right now is to make sure that it plays an important role in it.”

International maritime laws, as well as precedents set in other, comparable waterways, can provide clues about the possible future of the Strait of Hormuz.

Premiums, premiums or insurance?

Iran has repeatedly signaled its intention to charge ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz after a 60-day negotiation period stipulated in the MoU with it.

Last week, the governments of Iran and Oman – the two countries with the coast in the crisis – in a joint statement that the management of the waterway in the future will have “related costs”, but will be in line with international standards.

There are fees charged for the use of other important shipping lanes, including the Suez and Panama Canals, where fees can be hundreds of thousands of dollars for large cargo ships.

But those canals are man-made, not natural chokepoints, like the Strait of Hormuz, and both Egypt and Panama are given express permission in the agreements to charge tolls, and the canals are subject to international agreements that guarantee freedom of navigation for any ship.

Meanwhile, Turkey charges a toll for shipping through the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits, which are natural waterways, under the 1936 Montreux Convention. That law predates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which came into effect in 1994, giving ships the right of innocent passage through any country’s waters without paying tolls.

Iran has signed, but never ratified, UNCLOS.

The Montreux Convention obliges Turkey to allow commercial ships freedom of navigation, but allows the country to levy certain duties, including sanitary, pilotage, towage and lighthouse services.

A few days after Oman issued a joint statement with Iran, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Oman, Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi, denied “any ambiguity” on the issue of transport funds, insisting that there will be none, but he did not issue funds for transportation services, environmental or other “services,” represented in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, where there are flight service costs.

In addition, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), an agency created by Iran during the war that the regime says is responsible for regulating traffic in the vital waterway, has floated plans to require ships to take out insurance to cross the sea.

The UN’s International Maritime Organization quickly rejected that idea, saying the demands were illegal.

A deal to be made?

Some experts believe that Iran can be convinced not to try to press charges if the US agrees to lift sanctions on Tehran.

“There is an inverse correlation between Iran’s ability to defend against sanctions and its desire to view this crisis as a source of revenue,” Ali Vaez, director of the Crisis Group think tank’s Iran Project, told CBS News.

“If the Trump administration confirms that Iran can get the frozen currency and is able to recover the income from its oil sales, Iran will need to make money by putting money to pass the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

The regional approach to managing this crisis may not include only Iran and Oman, but also other important countries in the region, and perhaps those that have acted as mediators between Tehran and Washington, such as Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt.

“They may come up with a system that doesn’t work in some or many countries in the region, not just any states” in the Gulf, Vaez said.

Iran may also try to impose a system that liberalizes countries in the so-called global south, which allows their ships to sail freely while imposing tariffs on rich countries, Vaez said.