{"id":524449,"date":"2026-07-13T21:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T21:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524449\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T21:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T21:15:17","slug":"trump-says-us-will-reinstate-hormuz-blockade-charge-for-safe-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524449\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US will reinstate Hormuz blockade, charge for safe passage"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump said that the United States is \u201creinstating\u201d a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and will charge other ships for safe passage. <\/p>\n

Iran has insisted it controls the critical waterway, as another exchange of fire<\/a> threatened a return to all-out war.<\/p>\n

The US had until now said the Strait should remain open to all without tolls, as it was before the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Any attempt by the US or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.<\/p>\n

Exchanges of fire in recent days, sparked by Iranian attacks on ships, had already cast further doubt on the interim peace deal reached last month. Washington lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of that deal, which also called for the Strait to be fully reopened.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump departs after speaking at an event to promote the Freedom 250 Grand Prix IndyCar race in August, Monday, July 13, 2026, on West Executive Drive at the White House in Washington. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,\u201d Trump said on social media. \u201cAll other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.\u201d<\/p>\n

The President<\/a> said the US would be \u201creimbursed\u201d by 20% of the value of cargo to help cover \u201cany and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic through the Strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with the interim peace deal. It has vowed to fight back against any US interference.<\/p>\n

The struggle over the Strait is escalating<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A screenshot from a video shared by the US military showing a jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency overseeing international shipping, said it was waiting to find out more about Trump\u2019s proposal but remained opposed to tolls for passage through international waterways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

A fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas passed through the Strait before Iran effectively shut it down at the start of the war, driving up global prices of energy, fertiliser and other goods. Traffic had picked up after last month’s agreement, but remained well below prewar levels.<\/p>\n

The US military said it struck dozens of sites on Monday (local time) in response to an Iranian attack on a container ship the day before, including air defence systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment, and small boats. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran is struck by US forces. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

It said it used drone ships to hit an Iranian ship maintenance facility and a submarine on Sunday, calling it a first.<\/p>\n

The American military has tried to establish a route through the Strait along the coast of Oman that would be outside of Iranian control. Iran has attacked ships using that route, saying the US is violating the interim peace deal<\/a>. The US has attacked Iran in response, drawing Iranian attacks on US-allied Arab states. The US also ended waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars.<\/p>\n

The US had opposed charging fees in the Strait<\/p>\n

Meeting with Gulf leaders late last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken forcefully against Iran charging fees for transit through the Strait.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s international waterway. There isn\u2019t a nation on Earth that supports having to pay money to go through the Straits,\u201d Rubio told reporters in Bahrain on June 25.<\/p>\n

\"Residents<\/p>\n

Residents check their cellphones as they sit at a cafe overlooking commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Rubio also said there was \u201czero support among the Gulf countries for any sort of toll or fees or anything that charges for the use of international waters. The President\u2019s made it clear that\u2019s not going to happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

US-allied Arab states report another wave of attacks<\/p>\n

Missile alert sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home to the US Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet. There was no immediate word on damage.<\/p>\n

Separately, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said its consulate in Iraq had been attacked. It did not immediately blame anyone for the attack or disclose damages or casualties.<\/p>\n

The oil-rich kingdom also condemned Iran and \u201cits factions and militias loyal to it in Iraq\u201d for attacking what it described as \u201cseveral border points\u201d and a maritime oil drilling platform that belonged to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.<\/p>\n

Kuwait and Washington share strong ties, and the tiny country along the Persian Gulf hosts several US military bases.<\/p>\n

In Jordan, the kingdom’s military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that \u201cresulted in zero casualties or material damage\u201d. Jordan also hosts US military forces and aircraft.<\/p>\n

In Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and said at least two people were killed, according to state-run IRNA news agency. Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes in the eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, which is on the coast of the Gulf of Oman.<\/p>\n

Iran blames the US for the chaos in the region<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The aftermath of a US strike carried out by US forces in Iran. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The attacks on Iran continued hours after the US ended its strikes \u2014 again raising the possibility of Gulf Arab states retaliating. There were unclaimed attacks on Iran on Thursday (local time).<\/p>\n

A base belonging to the armed wing of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq\u2019s semiautonomous Kurdish region came under drone attack on Monday, according to Rebaz Sharifi, a local commander. There were no immediate details on casualties or damage. No group immediately claimed responsibility.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the chaos gripping the region. He said Iran wouldn’t agree to visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency to nuclear sites the US bombed in 2025. That’s where Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to be entombed.<\/p>\n

Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was \u201cover\u201d. But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.<\/p>\n

Iran and the US are nearly halfway through the 60-day period in which they were supposed to negotiate such an agreement, which was also supposed to address Iran’s disputed nuclear program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump said that the United States is \u201creinstating\u201d a blockade on Iran in the Strait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,40,38,41,39,66],"class_list":["post-524449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}