Iran Launches "Persian Gulf Strait Authority" to Administer Hormuz Tolls
After Iran announced its plan to charge for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in March, a plethora of scam operators popped up to offer fraudulent paperwork in exchange for payment in cryptocurrency. That problem may now have a solution, though not the one that the shipping community would prefer: Iran has launched an official "Persian Gulf Strait Authority" with its own formal email address, providing owners with a verifiable single window for arranging transit with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
According to Islamic of Iran Public Broadcasting, vessels wanting to transit the Strait of Hormuz will receive an email from the official address "[email protected]," which will include information about Iran's transit regulations. Once the shipowner "aligns their procedures with this framework," they can obtain authorization for passage.
The creation of a new government authority to interface with the IRGC does not resolve the questionable legality of Iran's tolls on an internationally-designated strait. But there is a more pressing compliance concern: the U.S. has threatened to sanction any entity that pays Iran for transit. Shipowners may think twice about openly communicating arrangements with the new authority's email account, given the surveillance capabilities of U.S. signals intelligence services.
Meanwhile, on the south side of the strait, the U.S. continues to promote a new safety "umbrella" for ships transiting outbound through Omani waters. The newly-formed "Project Freedom" is a competing vision for marine traffic: guided by the U.S., conducted without charge. Iran opposes the mission and has used force in an attempt to block it, including attacks on merchant ships and on U.S. Navy destroyers.
Those actions continued Tuesday: an unspecified cargo vessel was struck by a projectile in the strait, according to UKMTO. Martin Kelly of EOS Risk Group has identified the target as a CMA vessel, and CBS reports that it was the Maltese-flagged boxship CMA CGM San Antonio.
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Several of the ship's crewmembers were injured in a cruise missile strike, two officials clarified to CBS.
Like other ships operating in the strait in the last few days, CMA CGM San Antonio has gone dark for security purposes, and her AIS transmission has not been received since Tuesday. Her last known position was off Dubai.