‘No return to pre-war conditions’: Iran defies Trump, announces Hormuz toll

4 min readUpdated: Jun 18, 2026 07:48 PM IST

US President Donald Trump in Evian-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo)

Iran has said it will charge ships looking to cross the Strait of Hormuz, directly contradicting US President Donald Trump’s claim of a toll-free Hormuz even beyond the 60-day period of negotiations.

Ruling out a return to “pre-war conditions” in Hormuz, a key maritime chokepoint, Iranian lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told state media this fee will come into effect after 60 days of negotiations agreed under the MoU, according to reports.

“Strait of Hormuz will not return to pre-war conditions. Iran has the right to sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and of course we will receive a fee for services,” Ghalibaf said after the 14-point MoU was digitally signed by Trump and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump (left) and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian sign the Memorandum of Understanding. Trump was present at the Palace of Versailles, in France. (@WhiteHouse/X via PTI Photo; (Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in India/ANI Photo)

Trump has repeatedly said he won’t accept tolls being imposed on the route that was the conduit for a fifth of global petroleum and liquefied natural gas supply before February 28, when US and Israel struck Iran, plunging the region in the over 100-day war.

Most recently at the G7, a day before the MoU was signed, Trump reiterated that Hormuz is going to be opened “toll-free”, including beyond the 60-day time period.

این یک سند تاریخی و پیامی از ایران مقتدر است: صلح در سایه احترام متقابل تحقق خواهد یافت.

جمهوری اسلامی ایران به صلح جهانی با حفظ عزت و استقلال، پیشرفت و همکاری منطقه‌ای همواره متعهد و پایبند است. pic.twitter.com/FgbeHSioKX

— Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) June 18, 2026

‘Record of American failure’

Ghalibaf called the MoU a “record of American failure,” according to a CNN report and said US “made the potential of the Strait of Hormuz a reality for us”. A few ships have already passed the Strait of Hormuz since the deal was signed.

Three Saudi-flagged supertankers carrying six million barrels of crude sailed through the Strait hours after the deal, according to ship tracking data accessed by Reuters on Thursday. These weree the biggest departures through the strait in week, according to a Reuters analysis.

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A small motorboat passes anchored vessels in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday, June 17, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

Other tankers displayed their positions as sailing through the strait on public ship tracking after weeks of concealing ⁠their ​voyages when crossing through the waterway.

Global oil prices are also expected to fall as the resumption of traffic through Hormuz is likely to throw open the gates for West Asian crude oil to flow into the global market.

“The reopening of the Hormuz Strait could unleash some 93 million barrels of stranded non-Iranian barrels from the Persian Gulf, while producers are expected to continue supplying cargoes through less visible channels,” Kpler analyst Muyu Xu said in a June 17 note. US lifting its restrictions on Iranian crude could add around 72 million barrels stranded on tankers west of Chabahar to the mix, with volumes set to rise further if Washington grants broader sanctions relief, Kpler said.

A huge body of crude oil is currently believed to be stuck in the Gulf aboard 54 supertankers carrying approximately 87 million barrels of crude.

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