The Islamic Republic of Iran is seeking to apply tolls on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway. Arrogantly, the Iranian regime has blocked the Strait to international shipping and has created a major energy crisis that is deliberately impacting Americans at the gas pumps and causing financial losses worldwide.
The strait is a natural phenomenon, a narrow waterway that connects two larger bodies of water and is used for international navigation. Under international law, particularly the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), ships have the right of transit passage through such waterways. This means that vessels must be allowed to pass continuously and without obstruction. Canals are artificial waterways and need maintenance, and thus permitted to charge specific tolls. The Iranian regime is using the Strait as a weapon against the United States and the Arab Gulf states, and arbitrarily seeking to impose tolls to bolster its failing economy.
The canal, constructed by Britain and France in 1869, has been maintained by the Suez Canal Company for the past 87 years. On July 26, 1956, however, Gamal Abdel Nasser, then-president of Egypt, nationalized the Suez Canal without a negotiated agreement with Britain and France. Like the current situation with the Strait of Hormuz, it disrupted international navigation through the canal, which triggered the Suez Crisis, involving Britain, France and Israel.
Nasser resolved to charge tolls on ships passing through the canal, the funds from which would finance the building of the Aswan Dam, a major infrastructure project on the Nile River. Britain and France sent troops to occupy the Canal Zone. Israel launched “Operation Kadesh” in October 1956, primarily as a reaction to Egyptian-sponsored fedayeen terror attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israeli civilians.
The Israeli Defense Forces defeated the Soviet-supplied Egyptian army in a victory that astonished the world; the Israeli military captured the entire Sinai Peninsula, along with Gaza, in just eight days. At the same time, its success, also known as the Sinai Campaign, resulted in the opening of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli navigation.
The Eisenhower administration opposed and acted against the Anglo-French military operation, which was meant to restore their rights to the canal. Eisenhower undermined them and threatened to withdraw support for the British pound unless British Prime Minister Anthony Eden ordered a ceasefire, forcing Eden to back down.
Eisenhower’s actions, while undercutting the British, French and Israelis (forcing Israel to withdraw from the Sinai and Gaza), granted Nasser a major victory that made him the champion of pan-Arabism and a client of the Soviet Union. Despite efforts by the Eisenhower administration to appease Nasser, he became an anti-Western dictator. At the same time, Eisenhower failed to deter the Soviets from invading Hungary, whose people sought freedom from Soviet domination and communism.
Iran’s use of the Strait as a bargaining chip is not unprecedented. Iranian officials threatened to close the waterway in April 2019 after President Donald Trump, in his first term, ended sanctions waivers for importers of Iranian oil, effectively eliminating a vital source of revenue for Tehran. The United States has long considered freedom of navigation a vital interest, setting the stage for a continued confrontation should Iran try to extend the blocking of shipping in the waterway. During the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, U.S. naval ships escorted oil tankers through the strait; in 1987, U.S. forces fired on Iranian forces laying mines in the Gulf, killing four sailors.
There is a parallel between the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the current crisis over the Strait of Hormuz. Both Egypt’s Nasser and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which now controls Iran, sought revenue for their failed economies. They have expropriated resources that are not their own and used them as a weapon (Nasser against the British and French, and the IRGC against America, international shipping and Arab Gulf states). The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly one-fifth of all global oil supplies. The Suez Canal connects Europe and Asia through the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. While Egypt has an excuse today for charging tolls, there is no excuse for Iran to do so.
The international community cannot allow Iran’s act of aggression to stand. The United States cannot permit Iran to control an international waterway crucial to global commerce. Moreover, if the Islamic Republic manages to maintain its control of Hormuz and charge tolls, the littoral states along the Malacca Strait—Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, whose sovereignty extends to the land borders and territorial waters—might also consider a similar form of revenue.
This would paralyze international trade, making it a costly endeavor and incurring long delays for the passage of ships. The principle of freedom of navigation under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea would be severely obstructed.
Trump said that he was considering “taking over” the strait and threatened Iran against halting oil flows there. He has also suggested selling insurance for ships traveling through the Gulf to ensure “the free flow of energy to the world,” via escorts from the U.S. Navy. Currently, the Navy has been instructed to implement a sea blockade against Iran, which has cut deeply into Iran’s oil export revenues and has had a critical effect on its economy.
Unlike the Eisenhower administration, the Trump administration must act upon these threats. While considering its own interest in securing the global freedom of navigation, the United States must also take into account the interests of its allies: particularly, Bahrain, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Iran must not be allowed to intimidate the world with a nuclear bomb or by any action that would block the Strait of Hormuz.
