Iran has warned that oil tankers will be destroyed if they try to travel along the Strait of Hormuz without permission, as it seeks to retain control over the passage during the two-week ceasefire.
A radio message was today broadcast by the regime to all oil ships in the vital waterway, saying: 'If any vessels try to transit without permission, [they] will be destroyed.'
The Islamic Republic is demanding that shipping companies pay enormous tolls in cryptocurrency to access the passage, which usually handles around 20 per cent of the world's oil and gas.
The future of the strait is a major sticking point between Washington and Tehran, with US President Donald Trump calling for the free flow of maritime traffic to be restored.
'Iran needs to monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren’t used for transferring weapons,' Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, told the Financial Times.
'Everything can pass through, but the procedure will take time for each vessel, and Iran is not in a rush,' he added. Each vessel will have to first email the authorities about its cargo, after which Iran's Supreme National Security Council will alert them about the toll to be paid in digital currencies. Hosseini said the toll would be $1 per barrel of oil, adding that empty tankers can pass freely.
His statements imply that Tehran will demand that vessels use the northerly route close to its coastline, raising concerns over whether western or Gulf state-linked tankers will be willing to risk transit.
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