Torrijos-Carter TreatiesPosts by

The 12-article statute behind the PGSA, ratified by Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on 21 April, formalises the legal architecture: rial-denominated fees, Israeli vessels banned, hostile-flag SNSC approval, 20 per cent cargo confiscation for non-compliance. This post reads each substantive provision against the equivalent at the Suez Canal Authority and the Panama Canal Authority, and shows where the legal-architecture choice produces a sovereignty-asserting state-security instrument rather than a chokepoint authority.

Iran calls US interdictions piracy. The US calls Iran’s toll extortion. Both are arguing over a treaty, UNCLOS, that neither has ratified. That is the institutional core of the crisis: a dual blockade of one-fifth of global seaborne energy, invoking legal norms from a treaty both parties have explicitly declined to join. The flag states of the trapped ships have no tribunal. A ceasefire reopens the water. Only a treaty resolves the governance vacuum.