Whatever else comes out of the negotiations with Iran, the United States cannot allow Iran to set any kind of toll or \u201cuser fee\u201d on ships passing the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump couldn\u2019t send any worse signal of weakness to the rest of the world, both our allies and our enemies. <\/p>\n
Even the \u201cinsurance\u201d racket (protection money) version would devastate Western shipping<\/a>, slamming the US economy far more than the disruptions from Iran\u2019s recent temporary closure.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just madness, abandoning a bedrock American principle<\/a> going back to when President Thomas Jefferson sent the Navy and Marines to the halls of Tripoli, one vital to our national interests.<\/p>\n No nation can have any rights or sovereignty whatsoever over the Strait of Hormuz, which has always been and must remain exclusively international waters.<\/p>\n Let this pass, and the Houthis will soon charge for the nearby Bab al Mandab; next someone will hold the Strait of Malacca hostage. <\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Heck, Britain and France need cash; why shouldn\u2019t they toll the English Channel? <\/p>\n Spain and Morocco, the Strait of Gibraltar. <\/p>\n Freedom of navigation is real, longstanding international law, far different from all the piffle modern lefties try to add. <\/p>\n The hint in Point No. 5 of the Memorandum of Understanding<\/a> is bad enough: Iran and Oman will \u201cdefine the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussions with other Persian Gulf Littoral States.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice President JD Vance seems to think it\u2019s fine that those nations \u201cwill figure out a proper security framework for the straits.\u201d<\/p>\n Nuts to that!<\/p>\n However much the Iranians demand it, just tell them no: It\u2019s not like they\u2019ve put anything hard and real on the table, anyway.<\/p>\n Even President Barack Obama and his idiots never tried a giveaway on this scale.<\/p>\n Yet here\u2019s a joint statement from Oman and Iran<\/a> claiming \u201csovereignty and sovereign rights\u201d over the Strait, supposedly their \u201cterritorial waters,\u201d vowing to work out \u201cthe future administration of navigation\u201d and \u201cthe services that will be provided in this regard and the costs associated with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s already telling all ships to register with its newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority to ensure safe passage and to sign up to buy Iranian \u201cinsurance\u201d for when the 60-day cease-fire expires.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n This is a Mafia-style protection racket, pure and simple.<\/p>\n The only \u201csecurity\u201d ships would conceivably need in the Gulf is from Iranian attacks, and that\u2019s why we have the US Navy and Marines.<\/p>\n