The dust had barely settled from the latest exchange of fire when the words landed. On 13 July, from Truth Social and then in the easy cadence of a Fox & Friends interview, Donald Trump laid it out plain. The United States would be known, from this point forward, as the guardian of the Strait of Hormuz. In return for that protection, a 20 percent fee on the value of every cargo passing through would cover the costs of keeping the waterway safe.
The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World. The process and formation will begin immediately.
He did not dress it up in diplomatic gauze. The same post confirmed the reinstatement of the naval blockade on Iranian ports and shipping. The process begins immediately. Short, percussive sentences for a short, percussive decision.
A chokepoint that feeds the world
The Strait carries roughly one fifth of global oil and gas exports. Tankers slip through its narrow throat every day, bound for Europe, Asia, everywhere that still runs on fossil fuel. For years Iran has menaced that flow with mines, speedboats, proxies. Recent weeks brought mutual strikes: American hits on Iranian coastal targets, Iranian rockets slamming into US-linked sites across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan. The violence reminded everyone why the waterway matters and why leaving it to chance is no longer tolerable.
Trump’s move is raw power politics. It rejects the notion that the world’s most important energy artery can be held hostage by a regime that sponsors terrorism across the region. Instead of hoping multilateral talks will restrain Tehran, Washington is asserting control, deterring aggression and making those who benefit from safe passage pay their share. In a realist calculus, this is proportionate. The alternative is more attacks, higher insurance premiums, and the slow erosion of Western energy security.
Only weeks earlier, in June, the two sides had signed a memorandum of understanding. Fighting would stop. The old blockade would lift. The strait would reopen. Negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme would follow over sixty days. That paper already looks threadbare. The fresh bloodshed has undermined it before the ink could dry. Iran, predictably, has rejected any American role in managing the passage. Yet the strait is an international waterway. Its security cannot be entrusted to the very power that has repeatedly threatened to close it.
