MANAMA: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday (Jun 25) warned that Iranian tolls on ships passing the Strait of Hormuz would spread to other waterways, risking "total chaos"."International waterways do not belong to any nation-state. This is a foundational principle in the world today, without which the world would be in total chaos," Rubio told a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain."If in fact we accepted that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well then this will spread throughout the world like a contagion."This comes as Tehran has said it plans to impose what it calls maritime service fees, as opposed to tolls, while the US argues it is an international waterway and therefore should not be charged.
Rubio, on his first regional tour since the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the Middle East war, said the US wants a peace deal but not "at any price"."While we want a deal, we don't want a deal at any price," he said. "We want a deal that's good, we want a deal that's real, we want a deal that's verifiable, and we want a deal that's adhered to."The top US diplomat, who has visited the heavily attacked UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain on his tour, also gave assurances that the interests of Gulf countries would be taken into account."We want to ensure ... that there is no part of this deal that's undertaken that in any way undermines the security, the stability, or the prosperity of any of our partners in the Gulf region," he said.Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday warned against any crossings of the Strait of Hormuz without authorisation, saying vessels not complying "will be dealt with"."The only authorised route for passage through the Strait of Hormuz is the route announced by the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military.Any crossing without authorisation is "unacceptable and extremely dangerous", they warned in a statement.They also denounced what they said was a new route through the waterway announced by "certain authorities".Omani authorities released a map of a route running close to the Omani coast that they said was coordinated with the International Maritime Organisation, a UN agency responsible for marine safety.
