Trump reimposes US blockade and demands 20% Hormuz shipping fee

The remarks come after Donald Trump discussed U.S. control over the vital shipping route during a television interview, adding to already heightened tensions.

The U.S. struck Iran for the third time in a week, prompting retaliatory attacks on at least five Arab nations after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck a Cyprus-flagged container ship transiting the strait on July 11, setting it ablaze and leaving 23 crew members affected.

President Trump’s latest threat to impose fees on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz contradicts weeks of declarations by his top aides that no country can charge tolls or fees for passage through the vital waterway that has been a contested space in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Tehran and Washington clashed over the strait's control on Monday after exchanging another wave of strikes in the region overnight.