By Elwely Elwelly, Tala Ramadan and Katharine Jackson
DUBAI/WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday the United States was reinstating its blockade of Iranian shipping in the Gulf and would ensure the Strait of Hormuz stays open — for a fee — after the two sides exchanged more missile and drone attacks.
The latest hostilities followed an announcement by Iran at the weekend that it was closing the strait, and cast further doubt on the viability of an interim deal to halt the war and drove oil prices higher.
"The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE," Trump said on Truth Social.
"The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as 'THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT', but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped."
Iran's top joint military command said the U.S. had no role in determining the future of the vital shipping route and would not be allowed to intervene in the management of the strait.
The UN's shipping agency pushed back against Trump's proposal, saying it opposes any fees for straits used in international navigation and stressing that there is no legal basis for introducing mandatory tolls on strait transits.
Trump has previously suggested the U.S. could charge tolls on shipping through the strait, but it has so far not done so and it was unclear if it would follow through on Trump's declaration this time.
Before the conflict began in February, around a fifth of the world's oil and gas traffic passed through Hormuz daily, delivering more than 15 million barrels per day of fuel to global markets worth at least $1.2 billion. If the U.S. were to impose a 20% fee, it could generate around $250 million a day.
Iran has sought to establish a permanent fee and permit system of its own for vessels using the strait.
BOTH SIDES CARRY OUT MORE STRIKES
Thousands of people have been killed in the war, mainly in Iran and Lebanon.
The U.S. Central Command said on Monday its forces struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran on Sunday using one-way attack drones. Iran's official news agency IRNA cited a local official on Monday as saying the U.S. had attacked military sites including Qeshm, Bandar Abbas and Abadan in southern and southwestern Iran. It confirmed the deaths of two people in the Abadan attack.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they had targeted U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, destroyed radar systems in Oman and hit fuel tanks and ammunition depots at Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan in response to U.S. strikes.
Bahrain said its air defence systems had intercepted several Iranian missile and drone attacks early on Monday.
The latest exchanges mark an escalation in both the pace and geographic reach of attacks over the past week, throwing into question an interim U.S.-Iranian agreement signed last month to reopen the strait and halt hostilities.
Trump has said he considers the ceasefire over, while leaving the door open to further talks.
"We had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We've had 10 deals with these people, and so we're just going to hit them very hard," he said in a phone interview with Fox News on Monday.
Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, struck a similarly forceful tone on X on Sunday: "The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price."
The war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on February 28 has destabilised the Gulf and spread across the region, with Iran attacking U.S. bases in multiple countries.
In Yemen, the Iran-aligned Houthi movement accused Saudi Arabia on Monday of launching airstrikes against Sanaa's international airport and vowed to retaliate, testing a truce in their conflict.
OIL PRICES JUMP
Control of the Strait of Hormuz has become one of the main battlegrounds of the conflict. Iran's effective blockade of the strait has pushed up energy prices, and Tehran said on Monday it continued to control the channel.
Brent crude jumped by more than 4% on Monday on Trump's latest comments and on fears of further disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, although prices remained below peaks reached earlier in the conflict.
Higher energy prices, particularly gasoline costs, are politically sensitive for Trump before congressional elections in November.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Monday that the only way to restore regular shipping traffic was to end U.S. military interventions in the waterway.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran was seeking to establish a joint mechanism with Oman to manage traffic through the strait, adding that U.S. pressure on Oman had hindered discussions.
The U.S., which revoked a licence waiving sanctions on Iranian crude sales last week after earlier attacks on shipping, said its forces were positioned to safeguard freedom of navigation.
"Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing," it said.
U.S. officials said around 20 vessels had been escorted through the strait in the previous 24 hours, although ship-tracking data showed little traffic moving. MarineTraffic said on Monday that vessel activity through the strait declined by about 52% over July 10 to 12 compared to the previous week.
(Additional reporting by Enas Alashray, Ahmed Elimam, Eman Abouhassira and Andrew Mills, Writing by Stephen Coates, Ros Russell and Hugh Lawson; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Timothy Heritage)
