US President Donald Trump has said the United States does not want any system of charging tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Control of the strategic waterway has become central to any potential peace agreement since Iran effectively closed the strait following the first joint US-Israeli airstrikes on the country on 28 February.
Tehran has since sought to formalise that control through a new system of permits and fees overseen by the newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority.
Before leaving for the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on 21 May that a diplomatic agreement between the United States and Iran would be “impossible” if Tehran continued to push for the implementation of the waterway toll system.
“No one in the world supports a system of charging passage fees. It cannot happen. It would be unacceptable,” he said. – “It’s a threat to the world if they try to do that, and it’s completely illegal.”
Iran’s nuclear programme is another major stumbling block in the talks.
While Tehran has ruled out transferring its enriched uranium to the United States, Trump said Washington would seek to get Iran’s stockpile back.
“We’re going to get them. We don’t need it, we don’t want it,” he said at the White House on 21 May. – “We’ll probably destroy them after we get them, but we’re not going to let them have them.”
Trump’s latest comments came after he repeatedly raised the possibility over the past week that the truce with Iran could be halted and lead to renewed U.S. military strikes.
Instead, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (quir) warned that any resumption of attacks would trigger a response beyond the Middle East.