Rubio warns Iran off Strait of Hormuz toll fantasy after Trump wins Senate war powers reversal

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Iran Thursday to “abandon the fantasy” of imposing fees on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, warning such actions would imperil any peace deal between Washington and Tehran.Some Iranian officials have openly mused about schemes to extract money from commercial vessels, including mandatory insurance purchases.“Fees and tolls are the same thing to me.If you’re paying someone to go there, I don’t care if you call it a fee or a toll or a donation; it’s a toll.

That’s how we’re going to define it,” Rubio told reporters in Bahrain.“It’s not even workable.“Let’s say a ship says, ‘I’m not going to pay the fee.’ It’s not like a toll on the road.

You don’t get a ticket in the mail.You get shot at.

You sink one ship, not one other ship is going to move,” he added.“So you might as well abandon the fantasy now.”Under the memorandum of understanding signed by President Trump last week, the Islamic Republic agreed to allow safe passage through the straits withou charge for 60 days.But there have been questions about what comes after that period, which has been set aside for negotiations of a final agreement between the US and Iran.“I think we’ve been clear.You can call it a fee.

You can call it a toll, call it whatever you want,” Rubio said.“If you are charging money to use the straits, we won’t support it.

We won’t.We won’t tolerate it.

We won’t allow it.”Rubio also stressed: “We want a deal but not at any price.We will not accept a situation where the Strait of Hormuz belongs to any country … [but] we’re going to give diplomacy every chance to work.”Meanwhile, Trump scored a critical reversal from the Senate, which had voted Tuesday to rein in his ability to attack Iran under the War Powers Act, something that enraged him.Wednesday’s reversal was a symbolic move to ease tensions with Trump and technically doesn’t impact the prior war p...