Iran is consolidating control of Hormuz with island checkpoints, diplomatic deals - and sometimes 'fees'

https://www.reuters.com/investigations/iran-is-consolidating-control-hormuz-with-island-checkpoints-diplomatic-deals-2026-05-20/

Iran is consolidating control of Hormuz with island checkpoints, diplomatic deals – and sometimes ‘fees’
Iran is enforcing a multi-tiered system for clearing vessels through the Strait of Hormuz as nations try to replenish dwindling energy supplies throttled by the war. The U.S. has warned against complying with Iran’s controls. Some shippers and governments are taking the risk.
By Devjyot Ghoshal, Ahmed Rasheed, Parisa Hafezi, Gavin Finch and Saurabh Sharma
May 20, 2026 7:31 AM CDT

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The 330-metre-long Agios Fanourios I, laden with Iraqi crude oil and bound for Vietnam, had been bottled up off the coast of Dubai since late April. But on May 10 it set off for the strait after a direct deal with Iran overseen by Iraq’s prime minister.

No payments were made, said the ship’s manager, Eastern Mediterranean Shipping and six people with knowledge of the passage.

“We have reasons to believe that Iranians turned a blind eye to the transit of Agios Fanourios I, following pressure from Iraq and Vietnam,” Konstantinos Sakellaridis, operations manager for Eastern Mediterranean Shipping, wrote in a response to questions from Reuters.

A day after it exited Iranian waters, the Agio Fanourios I was snared in the U.S. Navy’s blockade. For six days, the tanker drifted in a tight triangle as the American military ran through its paperwork.

Sakellaridis, the operations manager for Eastern Mediterranean Shipping, said Vietnam pressured the United States to let the ship pass. There was no reason for it to be stopped to begin with because, he added, the “vessel and cargo had no Iranian involvement.”

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