The Majlis committee approved the Hormuz toll legislation on 1 April, advancing a bill that permanently bans US and Israeli vessels from the strait and requires fees in Iranian rial from all other shipping. The bill had been drafted in parliament on Day 25, moved to committee stage on Day 32, and has now cleared committee. Full parliamentary vote, Guardian Council review, and presidential signature remain.
There is a fundamental difference between the IRGC imposing a toll because it controls a strait and the Iranian Parliament enacting a law that makes the toll a statutory requirement. The first is a military fact reversible by military defeat. The second is a legal instrument reversible only by domestic political process. Iran had already demanded Hormuz sovereignty as a formal peace condition; the legislation converts that negotiating demand into permanent law.
The bill bans US and Israeli vessels explicitly and requires fees in Iranian rial, forcing buyers to transact in a sanctioned currency. The NPT withdrawal bill is advancing on the same legislative track. Both bills are designed to survive any ceasefire: a ceasefire can stop the shooting, but it cannot repeal domestic Iranian legislation.
The IRGC's toll system had already been operating since around Day 12, with Chinese state ships paying and crossing. Codifying the practice into permanent law removes any ambiguity about whether a future Iranian government could unilaterally rescind it. If Trump withdraws in two to three weeks without securing this bill's reversal, the US leaves behind a legal architecture that makes Hormuz permanently contested.
