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On Persian Gulf Day, April 30, Iran’s Supreme Leader announced a new framework for managing the Strait of Hormuz: rial-denominated proceeds, surcharge for sanctions countries, the General Staff of the Armed Forces as administering body, and an invitation to GCC participation. Set side by side with treaty-backed practice at Suez and Panama, the framework is a unilateral authority claim that clarifies, rather than closes, the institutional gap.

On 25 April the International Chamber of Shipping, representing more than 80 percent of global merchant tonnage, formally stated that both US and Iranian seizures violate international law and that Iran’s stated wish to charge tolls at Hormuz has no basis in international law. It is the first time the operator class has named a public position on the toll regime itself, and the position is exactly the one a treaty-backed alternative authority would need to take.