Will Trump’s War in Iran Kick Off a High-Seas Toll Binge? |
Will Trump’s War in Iran Kick Off a High-Seas Toll Binge?
With both sides of the conflict talking about charging to use the strait of Hormuz, it’s time to regret not signing the Law of the Sea treaty.
Forty-six years ago I told an editor of The New Republic that I’d like my first article for this publication to be about the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. I was an earnest summer intern, less than one month out of college. The editor, Michael Kinsley, seven years my senior, was the smartest journalist I’d ever met (he retains that distinction today). Mike gave me a pitying look and said: “Tim. The Law of the Sea is the most boring subject there is. Find something else.”
I followed Mike’s advice for nearly half a century, but events now require me to disobey him. Earlier this week Jonathan Karl of ABC News asked President Donald Trump how he felt about Iranians charging a toll for ships that pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump replied: “We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it — also securing it from lots of other people.”
It’s hard to know how serious Trump was about this (or indeed, how serious he is about anything). Later the same day Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump wants Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “without limitation, including tolls.” The tollbooth that Iran installed in the Strait, and the sharing of toll revenues that Trump considered at least briefly, are both in blatant violation of the Law of the Sea treaty—and reason to regret that the United States never signed it. (Neither did Iran.)
The Law of the Sea treaty guarantees “innocent passage........