Rubio: Iran will not be allowed to charge tolls in Strait of Hormuz under any final deal

Trump insists Iran agreed to give UN inspectors access to nuclear sites despite Tehran’s claims to the contrary; Iranian president says without missiles his country would be ‘just like Gaza’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington would not accept Iranian tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, as disputes over the vital waterway, nuclear inspections, and missiles exposed early strains in negotiations to end the Middle East war.

Washington and Tehran have signed a preliminary agreement to halt the conflict and concluded a first round of talks in Switzerland, opening a 60-day negotiation period on sanctions relief, Iran’s nuclear program, and the future of Hormuz.

An Iranian blockade early in the war choked maritime traffic through the strait, sending global oil prices surging, but crossings have begun rising since the deal was signed.

Iran has repeatedly insisted it will retain control over the waterway.

On Tuesday, Tehran and Oman said in a joint statement that they would study the administration of the trade route and the costs to be charged for services, while insisting on their sovereignty over the strait.

Rubio, opening a regional tour in the United Arab Emirates, said Washington would oppose any such move.

“It’s an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway,” he said, adding that he believed “all the countries in this region would agree”.

Tehran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, had earlier said Hormuz “will never return” to the pre-war status quo, despite both sides agreeing to set up communication lines to keep it open.

The UN’s maritime agency, meanwhile, said it would begin evacuating more than 11,000 sailors stranded by the blockade, working with Iran, Oman and the United States after securing “the necessary safety guarantees.”

Traffic through the strait on Monday reached its highest level since the war began, according to two maritime tracking platforms, though it remained just over 40 percent of the normal peacetime level of about 120 vessels a day.

Oman said Tuesday that it coordinated with the International Maritime Organization to provide a temporary maritime corridor for vessels seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz, state news agency reported. The vessels wanting to use the temporary corridor would need to coordinate with the IMO, based on coordinates announced by the organization and Omani authorities, it added.

The measure is aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation through the strategic waterway in line with international law and the law of the sea, which uphold freedom of navigation without imposing transit fees.

Red lines

Diplomacy was in full swing Tuesday, with Iran’s president visiting mediator Pakistan, Rubio beginning a tour of Gulf allies and Lebanon and Israel kicking off more direct talks in Washington.

But Tehran signaled that its ballistic missile program would not be part of any final settlement.

“If the missiles we have for our defense did not exist, Israel and the United States would have plowed Iran just like Gaza,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in Pakistan.

He added that the Islamic Republic would “never negotiate with anyone, under any circumstances, ever, about our defensive capabilities.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed that the preliminary US-Iran agreement made no mention of ballistic missiles, saying there could not be “double standards” on which countries may possess them.

Iran fired hundreds of missiles and thousands of drones at Israel and Gulf neighbors during the war, while Israel has long viewed the program as an existential threat.

Rubio was asked how he’s trying to ease concerns in the region over the MOU’s ignoring of Iran’s missile program and support for proxies.

The top US diplomat acknowledged that those issues will come up during his meetings this week in the Gulf. However, he insisted that they are actually covered by the memorandum of understanding inked last week with Iran because that agreement talks about “an end of hostilities in the entire region.”

“You can’t have the end of hostilities and conflicts in the region as long as Iranian proxies are launching missiles and drones from Iraq and are participating in terrorism like Hamas did and like Hezbollah did,” Rubio says.

“So I do think it’s covered by the MOU, and it is an issue that will be gotten to at the appropriate time in these negotiations,” he added.

It’s not clear, however, the extent to which US President Donald Trump agrees with Rubio, given that he insisted last week that Iran should be allowed to keep some of its missiles because other countries in the region also have them.

Relatedly, Iran denied a claim by US Vice President JD Vance that Tehran had agreed to invite International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back to nuclear sites bombed by the United States and Israel last year.

“They know they’re wrong. They told us inside [negotiations in Switzerland over the weekend], and we have it down — 100% inspections,” Trump claimed on Tuesday. “And if they [the Iranians] were right, I’d cancel the meetings right now.”

Asked when UN inspectors will actually arrive in Iran, Trump responded that they will do so at the appropriate time.

When the US joined Israel’s previous war with Iran in mid-2025, it bombed nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, including with powerful bunker-busting munitions.

The extent of the damage remains unknown despite Trump claiming they were “obliterated.”

Iran’s UN ambassador Ali Bahreini also told reporters, “there hasn’t been such a decision” to accept IAEA inspectors.

Sanctions and US Congress

Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said both sides had agreed on a “roadmap” to reach a final agreement within the 60-day timeframe.

The US Treasury has temporarily lifted sanctions on Iran to allow it to produce, sell and deliver crude and related products until mid-August.

As part of the deal, Washington also agreed to release $12 billion in frozen funds to Iran, according to Iranian state media.

Israel had no part in negotiating the MOU, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from it. Still, the terms of the opening clause, permanently ending the war and ruling out any resumption, indicate that it is binding on the US, Iran “and their allies.” Israeli officials are bitterly opposed to the deal’s terms, which resolve none of the war’s key goals — notably, eliminating Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and creating the conditions for the fall of the regime.

Tuesday’s diplomacy was also clouded by a symbolic rebuke in Washington, where the US Senate adopted a House-passed resolution calling for an end to the war with Iran.

The legislative vehicle carries disputed legal force, but the vote meant both chambers are now on-record against the conflict as negotiations continue.

On the Lebanon front, a fifth round of negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli officials began in Washington on Tuesday in a bid to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which has been a key sticking point in talks between the US and Iran, which has demanded a halt to Israeli strikes on its Lebanese proxy and that the IDF withdraw from southern Lebanon.