This is insane. I don't know why this hasn't got wider news coverage.
I were not able to find a better news article, but this news article somehow failed to mention the central fact that anybody demanding tolls, whether Iran or USA or both, is unambiguously illegal under international law. It is an international strait, and there is right of navigation for ships. Legal Eagle describes why the tolls are illegal: Trump’s Illegalist War Gets Illegaler.
It is an international strait, and there is right of navigation for ships.
Says who? May I introduce you to the wonderful world of gunboat diplomacy? /s
Says who?
The most extraordinary thing here is perhaps that the US is not saying so. With Trump talking about imposing tolls. It used to be that like the #1 priority of Pax Americana was to insure international freedom of navigation.
But Trump just casually throws that out the window, I assume in an unvetted 2AM Truth Social rant (I haven't actually checked where and when Trump said it).
How long though till Trump is the US, though?
Trump is President. Trump is the US right now. It is dangerous to pretend he is not.
And it is not just an aberration. Congress could remove Trump any time they wanted to. But they do not.
Trump will be the US until he dies ( probably not for ages just to spite his haters)
is unambiguously illegal under international law.
Oh honey...
This specific part of international law has been almost universally observed for many decades. It actually matters.
incoherent mumbling “~rules based order…~”
Who's going to enforce it? Not the USA.
There are no laws, we made the whole thing up
Well what will happen is that US courts will declare it illegal, but after attention spans have moved on, so the end result will be that Iran just wins in the end, and oil gets more expensive.
Yeah because the law is the one thing that can stop Trump, right? Let's stop kidding ourselves. The only thing proven to stop Trump is leverage and force. It doesn't even take that much because he's so stupid he can't usually figure out ways around it.
The problem is that the US extorting protection money from merchant ships for passing in an otherwise free international waterway makes the US government look like a mafia state. Which it may very well be, although it tried to avoid making it this clear before.
It's abundantly clear that the Trump administration is this and not an inch more than this.
Everybody benefits from the free trade system working - and that depends on international freedom of navigation law being respected. Also Trump voting Republicans, and Republican Congressmen, benefit.
In a sane world, US voters would stop Trump. In their own rational self interest.
None of Trump's voters are anywhere near understanding this though. They overwhelmingly vote against their own rational self interests time and time again. So a sane world is not the one we get.
It’s fully within the territorial waters of Iran or Oman. I’m not an international law expert but it seems that it’s a practiced convention not a legally enforceable rule.
Besides, international law is about who has the bigger stick.
It’s fully within the territorial waters of Iran or Oman. I’m not an international law expert but it seems that it’s a practiced convention not a legally enforceable rule.
The right of "innocent passage" in a country's territorial waters is guaranteed by the UNCLOS. It's a legally binding rule since both Iran and the USA have signed the convention.
But both have probably also violated a dozen of international conventions since the start of the war, so that's mostly besides the point.
not a legally enforceable rule.
Anything is enforceable with enough bombs, if there is a will. Any previous US President, Democrat or Republican, would have enforced it no question.
K? Are we supposed to look up to previous US presidents as authorities on international law?
as authorities
You can pick any authority you want. No reasonable person disagree on what international law says here.
Differences in degree are still differences.
Lmao Trump sees an opportunity to swindle and is all over it. Art of the deal!
Art of the steal
Hamberder meal!
You won't be saying that when your toll checks start coming in about 2 weeks from now! /s
I know you are kidding, but if a monthly toll dividend payment went out to taxpayers even for a pittance, lots of folks would probably cheer the conquest happily.
I know the man is just throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks, but the whiplash from "civilizational erasure" and "back to the Stone Ages" to "buddy-buddy halfsies on illegal tolls" is a little much.
How brain is mush, and he started out with a bottom tier brain.
But his uncle was a top scientist at Harvard! /s
Wants his cut.
The bigger irony of this is that a Trump actually doing this would further turn the world away from the US. If it was just Iran imposing the toll, over time the international community would sour on Iran for not moving past the war. This would economically benefit the US more than any direct cashflow from a toll ever would, as it would stabilize devestment from America. Now nobody will ever blame Iran for the toll, solidifying the loss in American soft power forever.
I don't think it would be between the US and Iran, but rather a Trump-Iran joint venture. You know, to further compensate for his hard work.
“Joint venture” wherein the USA saves a few trillion dollars by standing down in Iran, and Iran tolls every ship that passes.
Art of the Deal.
Gosh, I wonder what Iran thinks about that idea? The article has this to say:
Any “joint venture” was not part of Iran’s 10-point peace plan that the U.S. agreed to and the president previously called “workable.”
And that's it! Guess this one is still in the "concept of a plan" phase.
A carbon tax?! Demented Don the climate warrior!
Iran: "Nah."
these was a guy in the comments 2-4 Weeks ago, who was already calling for that being the whole reason of the war. Trump and his lackeys are really executing the biggest grift in history. And the World only watches.
With Iran beging a close russian ally and the Trump administration the same (looking at Vance in Hungary), i dont think its too far fetched, that the whole pupeteer all along has been the Kremlin, achieving multiple goals at the same time. most importantly achieving financing for the continuation oft their Ukraine war.
here's a joint venture idea to Trump: your goal is to fuck off as much as you can with your buddy Israel, and Iran does the toll collecting. Iran get benefits from tolls, and you get benefits by stabilising gas prices over time.
A collective "Fuck you, sit down and shut up" to Mr. Pedo would be nice.
lol dumpy swindling? SAY IT ISN’T SO!
Imagine what you do is so criminal the USA wants to join in 😂😂😂
Is anyone else considering it?
Any random country with a navy coming to collect a toll like some sort of sequential highway robbery would be pretty funny.
That is the question. The current world system depends on there not being these kinds of tolls. But if Trump legitimizes them, then world trade could be fucked.
The current system has worked so well for so long, people don't even seem to realize how much wealth it generates for everybody. And that it doesn't need to be this way. Actually not unlike what happens in the US, if the rule of law collapses completely.
He would me more successful in trying to proclaiming reality into being if he said he was considering getting a pony.
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON AROUND HERE? DID A SATIRE WRITER GET PROMOTED TO WRITING REAL LIFE? SOMEBODY MAKE LIKE SHE-HULK AND GO YELL AT THE PRODUCER OF THIS SHITSHOW REALITY!
A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/