President Donald Trump declared that the Strait of Hormuz is now open and operating toll-free. But industry analysts — and members of his own administration — aren’t so sure.
Trump’s declaration of a peace agreement with Iran on Sunday provided some breathing room for the administration as oil and gasoline prices fell. But analysts said conflicting reports — including from Vice President JD Vance — on whether Iran still will be able to charge oil tankers to travel through the Strait of Hormuz and whether the Strait was in fact open to any traffic has kept oil shipping companies wary of resuming traffic through the key waterway.
Vance said Monday the issue of Iran charging ships a toll to move through Hormuz remains a point of contention ahead of the peace agreement signing later this week.
“Our expectation is that the Strait is going to be opened in a toll-free way for the long term, and that’s the sort of thing that we’re going to figure out in these technical negotiations,” Vance said in an interview on CNBC. “You know that there are a lot of very important details to figure out that we’re actually going to sit at the table and discuss together and figure out a path forward on these details.”
