President Trump on Wednesday said he is considering the formation of a “joint venture” with Iran to set up tolls in the Strait of Hormuz after the Trump administration and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire deal.
[…]
The president also suggested Monday that the U.S. could impose its own tolls on vessels trying to transit through the channel. Leaders in Tehran signaled last week it would install a “toll booth” system to exert a price on ships seeking safe passage through the strait.
This is insane. I don’t know why this hasn’t got wider news coverage.
I were not able to find a better news article, but this news article somehow failed to mention the central fact that anybody demanding tolls, whether Iran or USA or both, is unambiguously illegal under international law. It is an international strait, and there is right of navigation for ships. Legal Eagle describes why the tolls are illegal: Trump’s Illegalist War Gets Illegaler.
Says who? May I introduce you to the wonderful world of gunboat diplomacy? /s
The most extraordinary thing here is perhaps that the US is not saying so. With Trump talking about imposing tolls. It used to be that like the #1 priority of Pax Americana was to insure international freedom of navigation.
But Trump just casually throws that out the window, I assume in an unvetted 2AM Truth Social rant (I haven’t actually checked where and when Trump said it).
How long though till Trump is the US, though?
Trump is President. Trump is the US right now. It is dangerous to pretend he is not.
And it is not just an aberration. Congress could remove Trump any time they wanted to. But they do not.
Oh honey…
Well what will happen is that US courts will declare it illegal, but after attention spans have moved on, so the end result will be that Iran just wins in the end, and oil gets more expensive.
This specific part of international law has been almost universally observed for many decades. It actually matters.
Who’s going to enforce it? Not the USA.
incoherent mumbling “~rules based order…~”
Yeah because the law is the one thing that can stop Trump, right? Let’s stop kidding ourselves. The only thing proven to stop Trump is leverage and force. It doesn’t even take that much because he’s so stupid he can’t usually figure out ways around it.
The problem is that the US extorting protection money from merchant ships for passing in an otherwise free international waterway makes the US government look like a mafia state. Which it may very well be, although it tried to avoid making it this clear before.
Everybody benefits from the free trade system working - and that depends on international freedom of navigation law being respected. Also Trump voting Republicans, and Republican Congressmen, benefit.
In a sane world, us voters would stop Trump. In their own rational self interest.
None of Trump’s voters are anywhere near understanding this though. They overwhelmingly vote against their own rational self interests time and time again. So a sane world is not the one we get.
Huh? This news has been posted multiple times on here over the past 3 days.
It’s fully within the territorial waters of Iran or Oman. I’m not an international law expert but it seems that it’s a practiced convention not a legally enforceable rule.
Besides, international law is about who has the bigger stick.
The right of “innocent passage” in a country’s territorial waters is guaranteed by the UNCLOS. It’s a legally binding rule since both Iran and the USA have signed the convention.
But both have probably also violated a dozen of international conventions since the start of the war, so that’s mostly besides the point.
Anything is enforceable with enough bombs, if there is a will. Any previous US President, Democrat or Republican, would have enforced it no question.
K? Are we supposed to look up to previous US presidents as authorities on international law?
You can pick any authority you want. No reasonable person disagree on what international law says here.