Majlis weighs 20% fine on Israel-linked cargo

Iran's Majlis, the country's elected parliament, is reviewing an expanded Hormuz traffic-restriction bill through its National Security and Foreign Policy Commission⁠¹⁠². CNN, citing Fars, reports that the current text bars any military or civilian cargo linked to vessels connected with Israel, or to any country or entity Iran judges to have caused it damage, from transiting until compensation is paid⁠³. Fines would run to 20 per cent of a vessel's cargo value, and navigation fees for vessels allowed through would be denominated in rial⁠⁴. Mehr and ICANA, the parliament's own news site, record twelve separate Hormuz bills, nine on the strait and three amending maritime-zones law, going to that commission for merger, with three subcommittees splitting criminal liability, maritime transport and revenue management between them⁠⁵⁠⁶. The originating proposal came from MP Mansour Alimardan in March 2025, as a sanctions countermeasure.

This runs on a separate track from the negotiation with Oman, and Fars itself draws the line between the two⁠⁷. The negotiated track stays reversible and unwritten. A statute would bind Iranian courts from the day it passed, whatever any corridor understanding said.

Two clauses do work no fee schedule does. The first leaves the trigger inside Tehran: cargo linked to "any country or entity Iran deems to have caused it damage" has no external test and no published list. A charterer fixes a voyage, committing a named ship to a named cargo on agreed terms, weeks ahead of loading. A prohibition that can attach after the fixture on a political judgement cannot be written into a freight rate, so the cargo does not get fixed at all.

The second clause turns on the currency. An owner in Athens or Singapore can raise dollars against a percentage fee. Sourcing rial in size, through banks that will not clear Iranian currency, becomes a compliance problem before it is ever a cost, and the compliance ground has been narrowing: the US Treasury designated two Iranian marine insurance providers on Thursday 30 July. A modest toll payable only in rial can therefore stop a ship that a much larger dollar toll would not.