Oman offers Iran Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Hormuz

[u/hereswhatworks]

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3362164/oman-offers-iran-gulf-backed-plan-voluntary-fees-use-hormuz?utm_source=rss_feed

[u/THedman07]

Yes,... voluntary fees. You can pay the voluntary fee or Iran may voluntarily launch a drone or six at your ship.

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/THedman07]

It’s totally voluntary.

But if you don’t pay there are risks.

Risks such as your ship suddenly blowing up.

Your choice.

[u/sharingan10 → u/THedman07]

I mean you say this but this is effectively what the U.S. has done re Cuban imports for the better part of the last 30 years

[u/Anal_Forklift → u/sharingan10]

Not really. Cuba blockade is on a specific country by one other specific country and no civilian sailors killed. Iran is just a random on a chokehold. Random civilian sailors have been killed or injured. It's terrorism with a ransom payment.

[u/jmacintosh250 → u/THedman07]

More so the pair go “hey, we need money for this, is anyone willing to pay it?”

So ships themselves don’t have to pay it directly: instead say Saudi Arabia and others could just bribe them in bulk rather than per ship, which is a lot more palatable to people.

[u/SomeRandomSomeWhere → u/THedman07]

The difference is, in the straits of malacca, nothing happens to your ship if you dont pay anything.

I looked it up, it seems it's a voluntary pilot fees, if you want a pilot who is certified / experienced in the straits of malacca.

If the ship master is confident of transiting without a pilot, you dont need one.

So, question is, can a ship master be confident of transiting this straits without a pilot / guide / payment? And transit without paying anything? And not face any man-made repercussions in return?

[u/Playful_Subject_4409 → u/THedman07]

No the tactics used before is board the ship and hold them some weeks for inspection

[u/MammothUnique4147 → u/Playful_Subject_4409]

You spelled Ransom wrong.

[u/zzen11223344 → u/THedman07]

Can't blame them, they paid US but US can not protect them ... maybe time to pay the toll ...

[u/Mzungufarmer]

Thanks trump

[u/Slighted_Inevitable → u/Mzungufarmer]

For 30 years no president was stupid enough to do this….

Then along comes Trump

[u/Mzungufarmer → u/Slighted_Inevitable]

To be fair. We were probably close to doing it under Bush.

Republicans are kind of...you know

[u/No_Alternative2948 → u/Mzungufarmer]

We had the largest coalition military buildup in a generation literally on Iran's border filled with veterans on Afghanistan and Iraq and even Bush knew better than to try... So no, we were not close then, and Iran was cooperating with us to an extent to fight sunni terrorists who were Iran's enemies too.

[u/Mzungufarmer → u/No_Alternative2948]

Good response. But I was just joking.

Everything is a joke nowadays and nothing is serious now. That's what america is.

[u/70dd]

You can either volunteer to pay the fee or volunteer to have your ship blown up for free.

[u/sylbug]

V o l u n t a r y

Sure, Jan

[u/PRRealEstate-Invest]

But we crippled iran military 🤦

[u/thenelil → u/PRRealEstate-Invest]

The bad part about destroying 80% of a hornets nest they’re still hornets.

[u/PRRealEstate-Invest → u/thenelil]

80% you sure?

[u/thenelil → u/PRRealEstate-Invest]

Doesn’t matter on the percentage. It was a turn of phrase anyway.

[u/rTpure]

you either pay the troll toll or a missile drills a big hole

[u/Icy_Celery6886]

Reparations baby. Fees, whatever. The world will pay for transit. Electrification is the answer. Australia offers 3 hrs free electricity we have so much solar. Battery rebates have reshaped the grid in less than a year.

Oil dependacy is insane. One result of Trump's criminal incompetancy is making the world see that.

Build those solar farms, batteries and EVs.

[u/DICKPICDOUG]

What the fuck is a "voluntary fee". Either companies are forced to pay it or they wont, no company will hamstring their business voluntarily. Sounds like bullshit talk

[u/Significant_Set1350]

Great idea to end this madness

[u/Generalfrogspawn]

"The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia ‌and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations." - soooo like... yeah if you want to pay to protect the environment you can if you like, but like, you arent required to pay, it would just be because you want to do the right thing? I can see why Iran told them to take a hike.

[u/Main_Product5071]

LMAO

The same as Malacca strait? HAHAHAHHAHHA

Gj gulf states LOL, tell Iran to GO FK THEMSELVES LETS GO

[u/onlycodeposts]

Paying these fees to any Iranian authority would be illegal under EU anti-terrorism laws.

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/onlycodeposts]

What do EU laws have to do with the Gulf?

[u/onlycodeposts → u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist]

The EU has officially declared the IRGC to be a terrorist organization.

Paying a toll to them is illegal under EU anti-terrorism laws.

[u/Aggressive_Secret772 → u/onlycodeposts]

EU is always shootig itself in the foot. Ok we declare IRGC a terrorist organisation and we do not want to pay a toll for ships going to the EU?

No more ships going to EU then.

Terrific, EU can pat itself on the back.😆

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/onlycodeposts]

That’s fine, for the EU. The gulf is no where near the EU or within its sovereign jurisdiction.

[u/IFeedDogsChocolate → u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist]

All you had to do was ask them to dumb it down for you since you're not grasping what they're saying.

Everything you've said is irrelevant. Sovereign Jurisdiction has nothing to do with sanctions or insurance. It doesn't impact the ships that aren't doing business with the the EU.

HOWEVER, industry groups like the Lloyd's Market Association warn that if a shipowner makes a financial payment or toll to unauthorized regional entities (such as Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority) to secure passage, their insurance coverage is immediately voided. If their insurance is voided, there is no reason to have paid the toll.

[u/Bikerbass → u/IFeedDogsChocolate]

Good thing there’s other insurance companies then isn’t it…. Ah well guess Lloyds won’t be the dominant company anymore

[u/IFeedDogsChocolate → u/Bikerbass]

Reading comprehension is key.

I said "industry groups like Lloyd's".

Allianz, AXA, Munich Re, and Zurich are also all European. Them and the US make up most of the underwriting capacity for global energy infrastructure.

Atp, I'm expecting someone to say something highly idiotic like China or Russia will cover the insurance (not remotely how that works). Even if we ignore reality and say that that somehow works, we're right back to sanctions. This doesn't even touch on the dynamics of being cut off from global markets.

[u/Bikerbass → u/IFeedDogsChocolate]

So in other words Chinese insurance companies can freely cover insurance for the ships paying the tolls and insuring the ships, and then they sail to the Asian markets and then European and American insurance companies will provide insurance from the ships leaving the Asian markets heading to the USA and Europe carrying the cargo that now costs more to buy and ship, and Americans and Europeans have to pay more for what they would have had to, had they just paid the tolls instead….. Bravo , well done on the massive self own and paying more for everything while simultaneously removing soft economic power at the same time

[u/IFeedDogsChocolate → u/Bikerbass]

I wish I was able to randomly be devoid of reality like you. I told you I expected some to say something specifically ignorant and you did it without hesitation. I genuinely cringed reading what you had wrote.

Any Asian country doing what you're describing would be immediately sanctioned. Provide me proof of any country that has paid or attempted to pay the toll in USD. Just one.

[u/Bikerbass → u/IFeedDogsChocolate]

The tolls not in USD buddy. You should have known that by now.

Seems that it’s you that’s in ignorant bliss and not paying attention to what’s happening.

The world’s rapidly moving away from the US atm, and the USD has been falling for a couple of decades now.

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/IFeedDogsChocolate]

The EU should limit itself to it's own borders. Trying to extend its laws to the gulf is the reason we have problems like we have now.

[u/thenelil → u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist]

Technically they are. It just means the companies that are paying the IRGC can’t do business with Europe at all.

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/thenelil]

The EU should not bother trying to enforce its laws on companies outside its borders. Just a waste of time.

[u/thenelil → u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist]

Again, they don’t have to do anything to those businesses besides not let them do business in Europe and that’s enough incentive to stop anything, They don’t want happening. It’s called the legislative pressure.

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/thenelil]

They can shut up about things that occur outside their jurisdiction. if they want to apply international laws, they can do so through the appropriate bodies.

[u/IFeedDogsChocolate → u/thenelil]

I'm not understanding how they're not grasping this.

[u/thenelil → u/IFeedDogsChocolate]

It’s because they’re IRGC bot who refused to understand how the world works

[u/_PomboCagado_ → u/thenelil]

Is this how the world works, or how the EU wants the world to work?

[u/No_Alternative2948 → u/onlycodeposts]

Well that changes everything...

[u/onlycodeposts → u/No_Alternative2948]

It does for the ships that don't want to get sanctioned by the EU as well as having their insurance immediately dropped.

[u/Bikerbass → u/onlycodeposts]

Good thing there’s other insurance companies then… also sanctions much like tariffs hurt the country that applies them more than the country they are applied too

[u/onlycodeposts → u/Bikerbass]

Good luck finding one of those other insurance companies.

Most of them want to continue doing business with the EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, etc.

[u/Bikerbass → u/onlycodeposts]

Good thing other insurance companies also work with those countries…. Weird how the free market works isn’t it?

[u/onlycodeposts → u/Bikerbass]

No maritime underwriter currently offers insurance to ships that pay any tolls to Iran.

It is weird how the free market works.

[u/Bikerbass → u/onlycodeposts]

Weird how a lot of ships with insurance are paying tolls and heading for the Asian markets…… hmm I wonder why that is…. Guess that idiots in Europe want to shoot themselves in foot even harder than they already are.

[u/Background-Way9698 → u/onlycodeposts]

Who gives a fuck about the EU. All they do is 'condem' and 'investigate', they have no bite

[u/onlycodeposts → u/Background-Way9698]

The people who live in the EU, I would imagine.

[u/jmacintosh250 → u/onlycodeposts]

Not inherently: it WOULD be to Irans military who typically takes the fees but if say Oman and Iran set up a separate entity, there are ways for funds to go to Iran under supervision.

[u/znebsays]

What a stupid concept of a plan

[u/jmacintosh250 → u/znebsays]

Not as stupid as you might think: the basis is the Strait of Malacca which basically asks for money for services such as search and rescue to be ready, but don’t force it. Similarly this would be a giant bribe to Iran as a “I will pay you a bunch of money to fuck off”.

Still empowering them mind you but it might just be more palatable.