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European Oil Markets
23JUL

Azizi names Hormuz toll regime on X

4 min read
19:27UTC

Ebrahim Azizi, who chairs Iran's parliamentary security committee, posted on Saturday that Iran has a 'professional mechanism' for Hormuz traffic with fees on cooperating vessels and Project Freedom barred from the route.

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Key takeaway

Iran's parliament endorsed a Hormuz toll mechanism contradicting the UNCLOS Article 38 transit-passage framework.

Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of Iran's Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, posted on X on Saturday 16 May that Tehran has "prepared a professional mechanism" to manage Strait of Hormuz traffic along a designated route, with "necessary fees" collected from cooperating vessels and operators of "the so-called freedom project" expressly barred. The chairman attached no fee schedule, no unveiling date and no parliamentary vote 1. The Majlis is Iran's 290-seat parliament; its National Security Committee is the legislative branch's apex voice on military and Foreign Policy, and Azizi has chaired it since 2024.

The political claim arrives on top of operational machinery that has been live since early May. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) opened registration at info@pgsa.ir on 6 May and Lloyd's List documented vessels paying up to $2 million per voyage in Chinese yuan . The Iranian Supreme National Security Council finalised the underlying Hormuz security plan and barred US weapons from transit on 13 May , so Azizi's post extends an already-running architecture into a published political claim with a named exclusion class.

That exclusion class is the legal flashpoint. Project Freedom, the US operational umbrella Donald Trump announced on Truth Social before pausing in early May, is precisely the kind of military mission Article 38 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea treats as guaranteed transit passage for all flags. By naming a sovereign exclusion list in writing, Azizi puts the Majlis directly across from the 26-nation Hormuz coalition signed in Bahrain and Qatar on 12 May , whose mandate is built on that same Article 38 guarantee. Four separate Iranian institutions, the SNSC, the IRGC, the PGSA and now the Majlis security committee, are converging on a single Hormuz posture: selective accommodation policed by guided coordination through declared minefields.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Iran's parliament has a committee that oversees national security. Its chairman, Ebrahim Azizi, posted on social media on 16 May that Iran has set up a formal system to charge ships a fee to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway where roughly 20% of the world's oil travels. Ships linked to a US military operation called Project Freedom are explicitly banned from using the route. This is the first time Iran's parliament has formally backed what the country's military has been doing operationally since early May: collecting fees from ships that want to pass. The legal problem is that a 1982 international treaty guarantees all ships the right to pass through straits like Hormuz without paying a toll. Iran never signed that treaty.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Iran never ratified the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which means UNCLOS Article 38's transit-passage guarantee has no binding force in Iranian domestic law. Tehran's 2024 update to its maritime jurisdiction statutes, carried through the Majlis security committee Azizi chairs, inserted the category 'hostile-linked vessels' into Iranian law, broad enough to cover any flag state that has sanctioned Iran or joined a named coalition against it.

The PGSA's creation on 5 May preceded the Azizi post by eleven days: the parliamentary statement follows operational fact, not the other way around. The Majlis is providing retroactive legislative authority for an architecture the IRGC deployed before parliament voted. This sequencing, operational first, legislative second, is a structural feature of how Iran's dual-track state functions under war conditions.

Escalation

The parliamentary endorsement closes the gap between operational and legislative legitimacy on the Iranian side, making the PGSA toll mechanism harder to walk back in any negotiated settlement without a specific Majlis vote to repeal it. Four Iranian institutions, SNSC, IRGC, PGSA, and now the Majlis security committee, are now all on record supporting the same Hormuz posture.

What could happen next?
  • Precedent

    Parliamentary endorsement of a named exclusion class for a sovereign transit mechanism sets a legal template other states could reference when asserting chokepoint jurisdiction.

    Medium term · Medium
  • Risk

    The Majlis record makes the toll mechanism a legislative commitment, requiring a floor vote to reverse, which adds institutional friction to any ceasefire deal that includes Hormuz normalisation.

    Short term · High
  • Consequence

    Vessels operating under insurance from Lloyd's P&I clubs face cover withdrawal if their operators are classified as 'Project Freedom'-adjacent under the Azizi exclusion language.

    Immediate · Medium
Sources:Investing.com·Kurdistan24·Reuters
Mentions:Majlis →Strait of Hormuz →Project Freedom →Persian Gulf Strait Authority →Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) →UN Convention on the Law of the Sea →Donald Trump →Ebrahim Azizi →Truth Social →Atlantic Council →Persian Gulf →Egypt →Lloyd's List →Islamabad →Bandar Abbas →Iraq →Israel →Pakistan →Qatar →Chinese yuan →Iran →Tehran →Foreign Policy →Iran International →Iran-Iraq War →Bahrain →IISS →Iran parliament's national security committee →National Security Council (Iran) →
First Reported In

Update #100 · Tehran prints the toll book; Delhi joins the queue

Investing.com· 17 May 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
Beijing flips its blocking statute live
Azizi's X post formalised politically the PGSA yuan-toll architecture that had been collecting fees since early May (ID:3091)
Occurred 2 May 2026
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Three EU-US deadlines collide in 9 days
Lloyd's List documentation of $2m per-VLCC yuan tolls (ID:3073) is the operational foundation Azizi's announcement converted into a published political claim
Occurred 7 May 2026
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Iran's SNSC finalises Hormuz security plan; US weapons transit barred
SNSC Hormuz security plan and US-weapons transit bar (ID:3291) preceded and informed Azizi's Majlis-level toll announcement
Occurred 13 May 2026
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This Event
Azizi names Hormuz toll regime on X
First parliamentary endorsement of the operational Hormuz toll architecture puts Iran's Majlis on collision course with UNCLOS Article 38.
Led to
PGSA goes live on Hormuz transit
The Majlis-backed Hormuz toll mechanism legislated in ID:3349 moved from political signalling to operational status when PGSA launched its X account and vessel-submission process on 18 May.
Occurred 18 May 2026
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Iran charts Hormuz with formal PGSA coordinates
The Majlis-backed toll mechanism declared by Azizi (ID:3349) is what the PGSA coordinate publication converts from a verbal claim into a cartographic-legal assertion.
Occurred 20 May 2026
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