{"id":94194,"date":"2026-05-02T12:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/94194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T12:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:32:11","slug":"u-s-warns-shipping-firms-of-sanctions-if-they-pay-iranian-tolls-in-the-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/94194\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. warns shipping firms of sanctions if they pay Iranian tolls in the Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An Emirati patrol boat, left, and a tanker anchored in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from the United Arab Emirates on Friday.Fatima Shbair\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

The United States is warning shipping companies that they could face sanctions for making payments to Iran to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The alert posted Friday by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control adds another layer of pressure in the standoff between the U.S. and Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

About a fifth of the world\u2019s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes through the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in peacetime.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s latest attacks on Europe\u2019s leaders over Iran war worsen transatlantic tensions<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran effectively closed the strait to normal traffic by attacking and threatening to attack ships after the U.S. and Israel launched a war on Feb. 28. It later began offering some ships safe passage by detouring them through alternate routes closer to its shoreline, charging fees at times for the service.<\/p>\n

That \u201ctollbooth\u201d effort is the focus of the U.S. sanctions warning.<\/p>\n

The payment demands could include transfers not only in cash but also \u201cdigital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments,\u201d including charitable donations and payments at Iranian embassies, OFAC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOFAC is issuing this alert to warn U.S. and non-U.S. persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage. These risks exist regardless of payment method,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. responded to Iran\u2019s closure of the strait with a naval blockade of its own on April 13, preventing any Iranian tankers from leaving and depriving Iran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Central Command said 45 commercial ships have been told to turn around since the blockade began.<\/p>\n

How the conflict in Iran is reshaping how the world sources its oil<\/a><\/p>\n

The warning came as U.S. President Donald Trump swiftly rejected<\/a> Iran\u2019s latest proposal to end the war between the countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to make a deal, I\u2019m not satisfied with it, so we\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d Trump said Friday at the White House. He didn\u2019t elaborate on what he saw as its shortcomings but expressed frustration with the Iranian leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very disjointed leadership,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey all want to make a deal, but they\u2019re all messed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s state-run IRNA news agency reported Iran handed over its plan to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be holding, though both countries have traded accusations of violations. The standoff is increasingly putting pressure on the global economy, driving up prices and leading to shortages of fuel and other products tied to the oil industry.<\/p>\n

Negotiations continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys\u2019 trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America\u2019s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has briefed many of his regional counterparts on the country\u2019s initiatives to end the war, according to his social media. He also held talks Friday with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who is in contact with the EU\u2019s Gulf partners.<\/p>\n

Iran on Saturday said it hanged two men convicted of spying for Israel.<\/p>\n

The Iranian judiciary\u2019s news outlet, Mizanonline, identified the men as Yaghoub Karimpour and Nasser Bekrzadeh. It said they were hanged after the country\u2019s Supreme Court upheld earlier death sentences.<\/p>\n

The news outlet said Karimpour was accused of sending \u201csensitive information\u201d to an officer in Israel\u2019s Mossad intelligence agency, while Bekrzadeh was alleged to have sent details about government and religious leaders as well as information about Natanz. The central Iranian city is home to a nuclear enrichment facility bombed by Israel and the U.S. last year.<\/p>\n

Iran has hanged more than a dozen people over alleged espionage and terrorist activities in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday that maintaining the ceasefire is \u201cthe most urgent issue,\u201d as well as bringing together the sides to resume good faith negotiations \u201cto make sure that the ground is laid for reopening of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Wang Yi \u201chas been on the phone almost constantly\u201d with representatives from all sides, Fu said, adding that China supports Pakistan\u2019s efforts to mediate between the parties.<\/p>\n

Fu stressed the root cause of the tremendous suffering in Iran and neighbouring countries and the growing turmoil in the global economy, especially in developing countries, \u201cis the illegitimate war by the U.S. and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: An Emirati patrol boat, left, and a tanker anchored in the Gulf of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[950,936,951,158,928,952,949,927,942,943,939,929,926,147,948,703,941,934,963,930,931,394,102,937,938,674,953,345,958,959,961,956,960,954,957,932,945,946,81,944,955,935,101,947,462,940,933,82,962],"class_list":{"0":"post-94194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-hormuz","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}