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Iran and Oman could lawfully collect navigation service fees from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz under international maritime law, Yemeni journalist Samir al-Nimri has argued, Eghtesad Online reported on May 29.
Writing on the social platform X, al-Nimri said no part of the strait counts as international waters because the entire channel falls within the two countries' territorial seas. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, he said, every state may extend its territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles from its coast.
"Not even a drop of water in the Strait of Hormuz belongs to the international community," he wrote.
He said the strait measures no more than 21 nautical miles at its narrowest point, where Iranian waters to the north meet Omani waters to the south and enclose it completely. The convention guarantees a right of transit passage and bars states bordering straits from blocking that passage or imposing charges on it, he said.
Al-Nimri drew a distinction between banned transit charges and permitted service fees. Artificial waterways such as the Suez and Panama canals levy full legal charges on every vessel because they were dug by human effort, he wrote, with Suez alone generating more than $10bn a year.
Natural straits such as Hormuz, Malacca and Gibraltar carry no right to charge for passage itself, he said, but bordering states may collect fees for pilotage and navigation services. He cited Turkey's practice in the Bosphorus and Dardanelles under the Montreux Convention, where charges cover guidance and rescue services rather than passage.
"Tehran and Muscat, if they cooperate and agree, can legally collect enormous sums," he wrote.
He said the prospect angered US President Donald Trump, who held what he called a dangerous card in the form of threatened sanctions on Omani officials and financial institutions, posing a serious threat to a sultanate he described as one of the world's most stable states.
"Iran cannot relinquish control of the strait, even if World War Three begins," he wrote.
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