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THE GRIFT
EU rejects Trump's 'joint venture'
with Iran to charge ships through Strait of Hormuz
By Jorge Liboreiro
Donald Trump has floated the idea of a "joint venture" to set up tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. The European Commission says this would be unlawful.
The European Commission has firmly rejected any attempt, by Iran or the United States, to charge vessels for crossing the Strait of Hormuz, while admitting the final decision on whether to pay a fee is entirely at the discretion of affected companies.
"International law provides for the freedom of navigation, which means what? It means no payment or toll whatsoever," a Commission spokesperson said on Thursday afternoon in response to an Euronews question.
"The Strait of Hormuz, like any other maritime lane, is a public good for all humanity, which means navigation must be free. Freedom of navigation must be restored."
The pushback comes a day after US President Donald Trump stirred concern across Europe by suggesting a "joint venture" with Tehran to impose a pay-to-pass system on the waterway, which is vital for the transit of oil, gas and fertiliser supplies.
"It's a way of securing it, also securing it from lots of other people," Trump told ABC News. "It's a beautiful thing."
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, later said the idea would "continue to be discussed" but stressed the "immediate priority" was reopening the shipping lane "without any limitations, whether in the form of tolls or otherwise".
Hormuz has been under Iran's tight control since the start of the US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, crippling supply chains and sending energy prices soaring worldwide.
According to Trump, the ceasefire deal announced earlier this week would lead to the "safe" reopening of Hormuz. But the narrow passage was closed again on Wednesday after Israel launched massive strikes against Lebanon, which Iran considered to be a violation of its version of the 10-point plan. (The White House has fiercely contested the plan and said Lebanon was excluded from the agreed terms.)
On Thursday, confusion continued to reign over Hormuz, with traffic data showing that only a handful of ships had managed to sail through.
An estimated 2,000 ships and 20,000 seafarers remain trapped in the Persian Gulf.
Iran is reportedly operating a new system that charges each vessel $1 per oil barrel carried on board. The payment can be made either in Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency, two options that bypass Western financial oversight.
For Brussels, neither Trump's "joint venture" nor Iran's $1-per-barrel system is acceptable because they contravene the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which strictly forbids charging for simple transit. Fees are only allowed when a specific service, such as port access or maintenance, is provided.
Even though the US and Iran are among the few countries that have not ratified UNCLOS, its rules have become customary law worldwide.
Asked whether European companies should agree to pay or remain stranded in the Persian Gulf, the Commission said the decision should be made by private operators themselves, taking into account their "various interests".
"It is up to the concerned companies and ship-owners to see whether, despite this, they would still want to pay this fee," chief spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters.
Europeans have been mulling plans to help secure Hormuz, but nothing specific has been put on the table. Tehran considers the shipping lane its greatest leverage and is loath to make any concessions unless Washington reciprocates.
Shipping toll for Hormuz passage sharply divides nations
ByAFP
April 9, 2026
Iran effectively closed the Strait during the war, granting passage to just a handful of vessels - Copyright AFP Giuseppe CACACE
Celia Lebur with Nathalie Alonso
Iran’s imposition of a toll for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz looks set to be a key point of contention at talks opening in Pakistan Friday.
When the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran on February 28, Iran responded by blocking passage through the key Strait to all but a handful of vessels.
While Iran agreed to reopen the thoroughfare during the two-week truce with the United States, it has also spoken of a toll system to fund reconstruction following punishing US-Israeli attacks.
The European Union was quick to denounce the idea Thursday. US President Donald Trump’s position however appears more ambivalent.
The stakes are high, given that a fifth of the world’s oil as well as vast quantities of natural gas and fertiliser pass in peacetime.
Bloomberg News has reported that shipping companies would be expected to pay up to $2 million per vessel.
The Financial Times said the price to pay would be a dollar a barrel of oil, paid in crypto-currency or yuan, China’s currency.
– Iran maintains control –
The temporary reopening of the Strait was announced Tuesday as part of the US-Iran ceasefire deal. Nevertheless, insurance specialists Lloyd’s List noted: “Iran’s approval regime for Hormuz transits remains intact.”
At least some vessels, they added, faced “a slow, opaque verification process and, in many cases, multimillion dollar toll demands”.
One of the points on the 10-point plan for ending the war that Iran sent to Washington was that Tehran would maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz.
An Iranian diplomatic source told journalists “There is a new mechanism according to which there has been and there will be a right of passage” organised with Oman, which also borders the Strait.
Freedom of circulation is a cardinal principle of maritime law. The only points of passage that have tollbooths are the Suez and Panama canals, both of which are artificial constructions that require maintenance.
“Paying a toll legitimises Iran’s coercion and sets a precedent under international law that other regimes may want to pursue,” wrote Guntram Wolff, senior researcher at the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank.
US President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States and Iran could run the system in a “joint venture”.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt nevertheless cautioned that Washington had not yet taken a definitive position on the matter.
But Trump, she added “wants to see the Strait reopened immediately without limitation, and that’s something we’re going to hold them to”.
– ‘A legitimised tollbooth’ –
For several analysts, the most credible scenario is some kind of partnership between Oman and Iran, the two countries bordering the vital maritime passage.
“If Iran and Oman can come to a solution and create some sort of legitimised toll booth, a structure where ships can come through the Strait, it would give Iran money for reparation,” said Michelle Brouhard, an analyst with global markets specialists Kpler.
JP Morgan bank, working off estimates made by Bloomberg, said the receipts from such a system could bring Iran $70 billion to $90 billion a year.
The Strait of Hormuz has become “more important for Iran than enriched uranium”, Amir Handjari, an analyst with the US Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told AFP.
“That’s the real security guarantee to prevent Israeli and US attacks in the future,” he argued.
“Oman gets more strategic relevance and a revenue stream they really need,” he added. In a video posted Wednesday, Transport Minister Said bin Hamood bin Said Al Maawali said that international conventions signed by Oman forbade taking tolls for passage, but that talks were ongoing with the foreign ministry.
The video was subsequently deleted.
Oman’s policies towards Iran are not “in sync” with those of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said the analyst, Handjari. The GCC comprises the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
As for the United States, he said, they might agree to tolls provided the payments were made in dollars and not yuan.
– Gulfs states divided –
The other gulf monarchies would take the imposition of a toll badly, said Amena Bakr, another analyst with Kpler.
“When it comes to Hormuz, the position is very clear from the GCC side… They will not accept Iran controlling the flow,” she said.
Nor was it clear how such a toll would be determined, she added.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, head of the United Arab Emirates’s state energy company ADNOC and the UAE Industry Minister, denounced any question of a toll.
“The weaponisation of this vital waterway, in any form, cannot stand,” he insisted Thursday. “The Strait must be open — fully, unconditionally and without restriction.”
The EU took a similar line on Thursday. Freedom of navigation, Commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni told journalists, means “basically no payment or toll whatsoever”.
But for Handjari, at the Quincy Institute: “It really comes down to three parties.
“The United States, Oman and Iran will determine the fate of the Straits of Hormuz. And the US has the weakest hand there.”
Rutte Insists NATO Allies Have Met U.S. Demands
By EurActiv
By Pietro Guastamacchia
(EurActiv) — NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday sought to once more dispel doubts about the military alliance, saying European allies are delivering on US requests and stepping up their defence commitments.
Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Foundation a day after meeting with Donald Trump, Rutte said he told the US president that “the overwhelming majority of European allies have done what the US has asked” amid tensions over support for Washington’s campaign against Iran.
Trump has railed against European allies for a perceived lack of support after some banned US aircraft heading to the Middle East from either flying over their territory or using some jointly operated bases. The US president has accused the alliance of being a “paper tiger” and suggested he could pull his country out of the alliance altogether.
On Wednesday, after meeting Rutte at the White House, Trump wrote on social media: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”
Rutte acknowledged some delays. “I sensed his disappointment that he felt too many allies were not visible enough,” he said. He noted Europeans were also surprised, since “to maintain the element of surprise, President Trump opted not to inform allies about the attack” on Iran.
The NATO chief reiterated that the alliance is entering “a period of profound change,” with Europe taking “a greater and fairer share of defence responsibilities,” shifting “from unhealthy codependence to a transatlantic alliance grounded in partnership.” He pointed to concrete actions, including a UK-led effort to protect shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, as “evidence of a shift in mindset”.
Rutte also issued a blunt call to Europe’s defence industry, saying: “Produce now, produce faster, bring in those extra shifts, don’t talk about ten-year plans — the money is there, act now.”
On Ukraine, Rutte praised Trump’s push for a settlement, adding that US negotiators “all understand” that the key to breaking the current deadlock in peace talks is for “NATO membership not being off the table” for Ukraine and that the security guarantees provided are “so strong that they know that Russia will not try to attack again”.
Asked about his now infamous “Daddy” remark, he said it was a lost in translation case: “We had a sort of pre-summit meeting with the President in June in The Hague, and he had been very angry that day with Iran and with Israel,” Rutte recounted. “This was in June last year, and I translated from Dutch something we would say: ‘sometimes Daddy has to be angry.’ I was not calling him my Daddy.”
“But of course, Daddy also has a special connotation, and I now have to live with this forever. I own it. Trump owned it, he even made a T-shirt out of it. He is funny, and that is why we like him. What can I say… I’m not a native speaker… sorry,” he concluded.
'NATO not obliged to reopen the Strait,' Turkey's trade minister tells Euronews
US President Trump has issued an ultimatum to NATO countries to find a solution to reopening the Strait of Hormuz within days. Turkey – which has the second-largest army in NATO – says the alliance is not obliged to intervene.
NATO allies are not “obliged” to assist the United States and Israel in the war with Iran, Turkey’s Trade Minister, Ömer Bolat, told Euronews’ Europe Today.
US President Donald Trump has issued an ultimatum to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington, DC, urging allies to find a solution to reopening the Strait of Hormuz within days.
Rutte is in Washington for a series of meetings, including a closed-door discussion with the US president, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Only a limited number of vessels have been able to pass through the Strait, despite a tentative ceasefire agreed on Tuesday evening aimed at restoring traffic.
A coalition of around 40 countries — mainly NATO members, alongside Japan, South Korea and Australia — has been working on a strategy to secure the waterway once hostilities have ceased.
However, Trump is pushing for an immediate solution, including the deployment of military assets and naval forces.
“NATO’s presence is primarily as a deterrent force to maintain peace and security on the European continent, but also globally,” Bolat said.
Asked whether NATO countries were within their rights to remind Trump that the alliance is defensive in nature and was not involved in planning the conflict, Bolat replied: “Yes.”
NATO members have rejected initial US calls to support the military campaign in Iran, noting they were not consulted ahead of the strikes.
They also reaffirmed the alliance’s defensive mandate, rejecting claims from the White House that they had a duty to intervene alongside the US.
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