Iran Pushes Oman to Back Strait Toll Scheme

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has condemned Iran’s escalating attempt to establish a toll collection system across the Strait of Hormuz, calling the scheme unacceptable to the international community. Speaking at a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden on Friday, as Breitbart News reports, Rubio rejected Tehran’s strategy to control one of the world’s most critical shipping routes and extract payments from vessels transiting the waterway.

Rubio met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte before addressing journalists about the Iranian threat. “No country in the world should accept that,” Rubio stated, referring to Iran’s push to involve Oman in the tolling scheme. He emphasized the universal opposition to Tehran’s position, underscoring that no nation besides Iran supports the initiative.

The top U.S. diplomat warned that permitting a hostile power to impose fees on international waterways would create a dangerous precedent. “If that were to happen in the Strait of Hormuz, it will happen in five other places around the world,” he cautioned, arguing that other states would inevitably replicate such territorial overreach if left unchecked.

Despite the confrontational tone, Rubio acknowledged modest progress in ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Iran. “There’s been some slight progress, I don’t want to exaggerate it, but there’s been a little bit of movement,” he said. However, he reiterated Washington’s core position: “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, it just cannot.”

Rubio described his outlook as neither optimistic nor pessimistic, noting that substantive developments have yet to materialize. The State Department is advancing a U.S.-sponsored resolution at the U.N. Security Council condemning Iran’s maritime attacks—a measure that has attracted unprecedented international backing, according to Rubio. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that permanent council members China and Russia may block the resolution through their veto power, which he termed “lamentable.”

The United Arab Emirates, which has sustained repeated Iranian aggression, joined international efforts to pressure the Security Council into action. UAE Ambassador Ghasaq Shaheen called on the council to enforce existing resolutions against Iran for targeting civilian infrastructure and violating freedom of navigation principles.

Iran’s newly announced “Persian Gulf Strait Authority” released a territorial map this week asserting control over more than 8,800 square miles spanning the Strait of Hormuz and extending into waters claimed by Oman and the UAE. The authority declared that all passage through the designated zone would require approval from Iranian officials. Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomatic adviser to the Emirati government, dismissed the Iranian claim as “nothing but fragments of dreams,” emphasizing Emirati resolve to defend its maritime sovereignty.

The UAE has mobilized regional support in response, coordinating with Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia to request that the International Maritime Organization reject any demands issued by the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.

With information from Breitbart News