NEED TO KNOW

• Iran's IRGC has built a controlled shipping corridor through its territorial waters, charging up to $2 million per vessel for approved transit
• At least one tanker operator has already paid; nine vessels have cleared the corridor; India, Pakistan, Iraq, Malaysia, and China are in direct negotiations
• Japan secured a transit offer from Iran's foreign minister — the first for a major U.S. ally — as Tehran drafts formal legislation to codify the fees

DUBAI (TDR) — Iran has converted the Strait of Hormuz from an international shipping lane into a controlled toll corridor — charging select vessels up to $2 million per transit while the United States demands the waterway reopen unconditionally.

The big picture: Since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began Feb. 28, the IRGC has built a vetting and registration system that funnels approved ships through a five-mile channel between the Iranian islands of Larak and Qeshm, deep inside Iranian territorial waters. This is no longer a blockade in the traditional sense. It is a checkpoint with a fee schedule, a preferred customer list, and a growing queue of nations willing to pay rather than wait for Washington to solve the problem.

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• At least one tanker operator paid approximately $2 million for passage, confirmed by Lloyd's List and corroborated by Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi
• Payments are accepted in cash, cryptocurrency, or barter, according to the Financial Times
• Nine vessels have already transited the corridor; Iran is drafting formal parliamentary legislation to codify the fees as a permanent revenue stream
• Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Japan's Kyodo News the strait is "open — closed only to our enemies"

Why it matters: The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 20% of the world's daily oil and gas supply. Every nation that negotiates separately with Tehran for transit rights is implicitly legitimizing Iran's claim of sovereign authority over an international waterway — and driving a wedge between the U.S. demand for unconditional reopening and the economic survival instincts of its allies.

• Japan imports 93% of its crude oil through the Hormuz corridor and is the third-largest recipient of strait-transiting oil after China and India
• South Korea faces a comparable dependency; both countries' stock markets fell sharply Monday as the standoff continued
• The IEA has called the current energy disruption worse than the combined 1973 and 1979 oil shocks, with tanker traffic through the strait down roughly 95% since Feb. 28

Driving the news: The corridor system emerged between March 13 and 17, when AIS vessel tracking data analyzed by multiple maritime intelligence firms showed vessels taking an unusual route through Iranian territorial waters rather than the standard international lane near Oman. Ships went dark on tracking systems upon entering, reappearing only after reaching the Gulf of Oman.

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• Ships approved for transit must submit vessel ownership details, cargo manifests, crew nationalities, and destination ports to IRGC intermediaries before clearing the corridor
• Vessels linked to the United States or Israel are excluded entirely
• Some ships have broadcast Chinese ownership credentials or Muslim-operated status to improve their chances of approval, according to Wikipedia's Hormuz crisis tracker citing multiple ship-tracking sources
• Iran's parliamentary bill frames the fees as consistent with toll practices on other strategic sea routes — and as a wartime revenue mechanism

What they're saying: The emerging corridor has split the international response between nations that treat Hormuz as an international right and nations that treat it as a practical problem requiring a practical solution.

• Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi, via Iran International — paraphrased: Said "war has costs" and described the transit fees as a reflection of Iran's "authority" over the strategic route, framing them as a sovereign right rather than a wartime improvisation
• Foreign Minister Araghchi — paraphrased: Told Japan that all they need to do is contact Iran to discuss "how this route will work," presenting passage as a bilateral arrangement available to non-hostile nations
• Security consultancy Control Risks warned clients that the U.S. is unlikely to tolerate the corridor system and may move to strike IRGC Navy assets directly involved in running it
• Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan issued a joint statement expressing readiness to "contribute to appropriate efforts" to ensure safe passage — but provided no specifics on military commitment

Yes, but: The legal case against Iran's corridor is clear. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea grants all nations the right of transit passage through international straits. Iran's toll system requires ships to enter Iranian territorial waters and submit to IRGC vetting — conditions no international legal framework recognizes as legitimate. The problem is that legal clarity has not moved a single additional barrel of oil through the strait. Economics is overriding law, one negotiation at a time.

• The transit corridor does not guarantee physical safety. Ships must navigate past an IRGC naval base on Qeshm Island's southern shore and rely on GPS systems that have been intermittently jammed across the region since the war began
• Iran has made 21 confirmed attacks on merchant ships since Feb. 28, according to the Hormuz crisis tracker — meaning IRGC approval is a risk reduction, not a guarantee

Between the lines: Every country that pays the $2 million toll or negotiates a bilateral transit arrangement with Tehran is doing something the United States has explicitly demanded they not do — and doing it anyway, because their economies cannot wait. Japan signing on would be the most significant crack yet in the allied front Washington is trying to hold. Iran understands this perfectly. The corridor is not just a revenue stream. It is a mechanism for demonstrating that U.S. demands carry less weight than energy dependency — and for monetizing that gap in ways that fund the very war the U.S. is fighting to end.

• The selective access regime gives Iran leverage over countries that have remained officially neutral, drawing them into bilateral dependency relationships that complicate any eventual U.S.-brokered resolution
• Trump told reporters during Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's visit that the U.S. "doesn't need anything from Japan" regarding Hormuz — a statement that may have accelerated Tokyo's decision to negotiate directly with Tehran

What's next:

• Iran's parliament is advancing formal legislation to codify Hormuz transit fees as a permanent revenue mechanism, not a temporary wartime measure
• Japan, the first major U.S. ally to receive a formal transit offer from Iran, has not yet publicly confirmed whether it will accept the arrangement or on what terms
• India, Pakistan, Iraq, Malaysia, and China are in active negotiations with the IRGC for expanded transit slots
• Control Risks has assessed that U.S. military action against the IRGC corridor infrastructure is likely if the system continues to operate
• Trump's five-day pause on energy infrastructure strikes expires Saturday — with the corridor operating regardless of the outcome of those talks

If allies are paying Iran to move their oil while the U.S. insists on unconditional reopening, whose definition of victory actually matters in this war?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from Lloyd's List, Al Jazeera, Gosships Intelligence, BusinessToday, House of Saud, Euronews, Outlook Business, and the 2026 Strait of Hormuz Crisis Wikipedia entry.

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