Iran Says 35 Ships Exited Strait Of Hormuz As Rubio Condemns Tolls

The US blockade of the Iranian blockade is looking increasingly more porous.

Iran said 35 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours in coordination wi

What the Documents Show

But the independent shipping data provider Kpler, which tracks vessel movements in real time, confirmed only 10 passages on Wednesday—less than half Iran's claim and an increase from four passages the day prior. The discrepancy matters because it determines the baseline for assessing whether a blockade exists at all. Iran's leadership has repeatedly insisted the Strait of Hormuz remains open. The operational reality appears more complicated. Shipping companies must now coordinate passage through Iranian contact points and obtain approval from Iranian authorities before proceeding.

Follow the Money

After that approval, vessels must then secure permission to cross what officials describe as a "US blockade" further out in the Arabian Gulf. The process, according to sources in the material provided, involves Iranian authorities collecting fees—reportedly paid in cryptocurrency—for this passage coordination. International law experts quoted in the reporting stated that such fees violate the internationally recognized right of transit passage through straits. The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which governs such waterways, does not permit coastal states to charge transit fees to foreign vessels in international straits. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking from a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden, directly condemned the fee system. "I don't know of a country in the world that's in favor of it except Iran, but there's no country in the world that should accept it," Rubio stated.

What Else We Know

He claimed Iran was attempting to persuade Oman to participate in the tolling arrangement and called the system a violation of international waterway principles. Rubio referenced a UN resolution on the matter, noting it had been sponsored by Bahrain and carried "the highest number of co-sponsors of any resolution ever before"—though the material provided does not detail which nations co-sponsored or what the resolution specifically demands. The numbers themselves create interpretive tension. If only 10 vessels crossed on May 20 according to Kpler, and four the day before, the trajectory suggests either increasing transit permission rates or fluctuating commercial demand. Neither Iranian claims of 26 nor the independent count of 10 fully answers whether the waterway remains functionally navigable for merchant traffic or has become a bottleneck with gatekeeping enforcement. The gap between stated passages (35 or 26) and verified passages (10) is the actual story—not whether passage is "blocked" or "open," but what the real flow rate is and what mechanisms now govern it.

Primary Sources

• Source: ZeroHedge
• Category: Unexplained
• Cross-reference independently — don't take our word for it.

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