Europe Capitulates, Sees Iranian Hormuz Fee Collection as “Inevitable”

(ZeroHedge)—Europe capitulates at a moment Washington and Tehran (and possibly Oman) continue to be directly at odds over how future shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz energy chokepoint will be administered.

Bloomberg reports Thursday, “Some leading European powers now accept that ships transiting the vital Strait of Hormuz will have to pay fees to Iran and Oman, according to people familiar with the matter.”

“The prospect of some sort of service fee in the aftermath of the US and Israeli war with the Islamic Republic was described as a given by two of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations,” the report adds.

At the moment there’s an uneasy pause in purported ‘positive’ indirect negotiations in Qatar, as Iran prepares for a multi-day funeral for the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this weekend – which as it so happens will kick off on July 4th.

A fresh Qatar-Pakistan statement has indicated, “The parties agreed to continue discussions over the coming period, with the next meeting to be scheduled at the earliest possible time following the funeral processions of the former Iranian Supreme Leader.” Other sources say a diplomatic ‘pause’ is on for the moment, as is presumably military action.

Maritime Executive comments that “While a relative calm prevails, shipping is using both the Omani/IMO channel to the south, and a loosely-defined channel through Iranian waters to the north, with inbound and outbound shipping using the same channel, at a rate of about 60 transits a day. The volume of traffic is difficult to judge accurately, given that some ships are still traveling without switching on their AIS systems.”

Still, more ships are making it through compared to before the start of Operation Epic Fury and the height of the US-Israel bombing campaign and Iranian retaliation, by all regional accounts. But last month proved this could shift at any moment, given the several tit-for-tat strikes between Iran and US forces, focused on the Hormuz and coastal Iran region.

And now Europe is admitting it will be ‘inevitable’ that ‘some fees’ will be collected under the Iran-Oman scheme for passage, Bloomberg confirms.

Oman’s official position remains that it will not allow ‘tolls’ – instead it has opted for ambiguous language of necessary environmental and navigational administrative fees.

So Iran will still tout ‘tolls’ (at perhaps $2 million per ship) – as Europe seems eager to play along – the Omani/Gulf position seems open to simply calling it something else, or a quibbling over definitions, clearly loose definitions.

It must be remembered that the pre-war situation was one of no fees at all for vessels passing via legally recognized international waters.

Now, the NY Times admits where things are headed: “Iran and U.S.-allied Oman are moving forward with plans to collect payment for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, despite public American objections, according to an Iranian official and four diplomats with knowledge of the matter.”

The NYT fresh reporting says that “If enacted, the plans would be a significant change from the prewar status in the strategic waterway, underscoring how the American-Israeli decision to attack Iran on Feb. 28 has changed the Middle East in far-reaching and unanticipated ways.”

Iranian leaders have made clear their position that a lasting result of Operation Epic Fury will be that strait passage will never remain the same. Europe is fast capitulating, and will likely call it some kind of necessary ‘environmentally safe’ passage scheme – as Iran is due to collect untold millions or even billions over time.

The question remains whether Washington will also eventually quietly accede for the sake of peace. For now the two sides are holding to rival absolutist demands, and the alternative will be a return to a fire-fight.