WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States does not want to impose tolls on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, reversing remarks he made last month suggesting Washington would collect such tolls.
"We want it open, we want it free. We don't want tolls," Trump told reporters at the White House. "It's an international waterway."
Though a newly formed Iranian agency has reportedly begun collecting tolls, Trump said Thursday that Iran is "not charging tolls right now."
"There hasn't been a ship that's been able to get through without our approval," he added.
Earlier on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tehran's plan to impose transit tolls would make a peace deal with Washington "unfeasible."
"No one in the world is in favor of a tolling system. It can't happen. It would be unacceptable," Rubio told reporters before leaving for a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden. "It would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible if they were to continue to pursue that."
When asked whether the United States would allow Iran to charge tolls on ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz in April, Trump told ABC News: "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."
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints, with roughly one-fifth of global oil shipments passing through the narrow waterway.
