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Trump’s Iran Blockade and the 20% Hormuz Fee: How a High-Stakes Gamble Reshaped the Gulf
The confrontation between the United States and Iran has entered one of its most consequential phases, with the Strait of Hormuz at the center of a widening economic and military struggle.
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President Donald Trump has described the American position in stark terms: Washington controls the strategically vital waterway, Iran’s ability to export oil is being squeezed, and the United States is prepared to use its naval power to impose an enormous economic cost on Tehran.
But one of the most striking elements of the policy was not the blockade itself.
It was the money.
In July, Trump announced plans for a 20% fee on cargo moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a proposal that immediately sent shock waves through shipping and energy markets. Within roughly a day, however, the president backed away from the fee, saying Gulf countries would instead make major investments in the United States. Axios+1
The episode captured the unusual character of Trump’s approach to foreign policy: military pressure, economic coercion, negotiation and transactional demands operating simultaneously.
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The blockade remained.
The fee disappeared.
And the strategic battle over the world’s most important energy chokepoints continued.
The Strait at the center of the crisis
To understand why Trump’s decisions generated such intense international attention, it is necessary to understand the importance of the Strait of Hormuz.
The waterway separates Iran from Oman and provides the principal maritime connection between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.
In peacetime, enormous quantities of oil and gas pass through it.
Before the current conflict, roughly 20 million barrels of crude oil per day moved through the waterway, according to recent reporting. That represented a substantial share of global petroleum supplies. Al Jazeera
The geography makes Hormuz unusually difficult to replace.