‘Very dangerous precedent’: Greek PM cautions against allowing Iran to charge fee to cross Strait of Hormuz

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says it would be unacceptable for ships to have to pay a fee to cross the Strait of Hormuz as Iran has suggested, and such a move would set a dangerous precedent for freedom of navigation.

Greece controls one of the largest merchant fleets globally in terms of cargo-carrying capacity.

Amid ceasefire talks with the US, Tehran, which controls the chokepoint, has proposed fees or tolls on vessels to safely pass through the strait. US President Donald Trump suggested the US and Iran could collect tolls in a joint venture, although the White House later said the priority was reopening the strait without limitations.

Mitsotakis says the strait always had freedom of navigation and that needs to continue.

“I don’t think that the international community would be ready to accept Iran setting up a toll booth for every ship that crosses the strait,” Mitsotakis tells CNN. “That seems to me to be completely unacceptable.”

The center-right leader adds that a separate international agreement regarding the strait may be necessary.

“But this agreement cannot, I repeat, cannot include a sort of a fee that ships will have to pay every time they cross the strait. This was not the case before the war started and it cannot be the case after the war finishes,” he says.

“We would be setting a very, very dangerous precedent, if that were to happen, for the freedom of navigation.”