US President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States would become “guardian” of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Now we’re going to guard it, and we’re going to get paid for guarding it,” he added.
The Trump administration has frequently said that ships should be able to transit the strait without paying any fees to any entity.
Late last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “fees and tolls are the same thing to me… That’s (an) international waterway.”
“There isn’t a nation on Earth that supports having to pay money to go through the straits,” he added.
Rubio had made similar remarks earlier in the month.
On June 24, Trump himself said that that any kind of fee on shipping transiting the strait would be “unacceptable.”
But he had previously floated the idea that the US could be paid for ensuring unobstructed navigation through the waterway.
When the memorandum of understanding with Iran was signed in mid-June, he said there would be no tolls before or after the 60-day duration of the agreement “unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America.”
And in April, when asked whether he would accept a deal that would allow Iran to take fees from ships to traverse the strait, Trump said: “What about us charging tolls? I’d rather do that than let them have them. Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won.”
Trump said Monday he would expect payment for guarding the Strait of Hormuz because “we just want to be reimbursed for doing all of this, for putting our people in danger.”
