Sarah: Washington just gave Tehran something—and now Tehran’s asking who gets to charge for passage.
Sarah: Here’s how we got here.
Sarah: Hormuz is now the war’s most consequential economic front.
Sarah: CENTCOM says Iran has attacked shipping, while the U.S.
Sarah: blockade has redirected, disabled, and boarded commercial vessels.
Sarah: Negotiators have been trying to open interim routes through Iranian and Omani waters
Sarah: but control of the passage
Sarah: fees and the terms of blockade relief are still unresolved.
Rich: This is Iran War Daily.
Rich: Tehran’s put a price tag on the strait, and Washington may already be paying before anybody signs.
Sarah: Kurdistan24 has the reporting.
Rich: Treasury took three IRGC-linked entities off the sanctions list.
Rich: Somebody in Washington decided the opening bid includes relief for organizations tied to the Guard Corps—so what exactly came back across
Rich: the table?
Sarah: Kurdistan24 reports the removals appear on Treasury’s official listings.
Sarah: So this is a concrete U.S.
Sarah: action, not another report about possible talks.
Sarah: It still doesn’t establish the terms of any wider arrangement.
Rich: Three delistings may be a confidence-building step.
Rich: Or they may be payment before the receipt exists.
Rich: Treasury needs to be very clear which one it is.
Sarah: Watch to see whether this stays limited to three entities or turns into a pattern.
Sarah: The IRGC has been central to U.S.
Sarah: sanctions policy because Washington links it to Iran’s military operations and regional proxy networks.
Sarah: Here's Iran International:
Quote: Iran has demanded the right to collect transit fees
Quote: guarantees against renewed attacks
Quote: an end to the US naval blockade and relief from oil sanctions as part of negotiations over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz
Quote: the Wall Street Journal reported
Quote: citing regional mediators.
Sarah: On Hormuz Iran International relays a Wall Street Journal report citing regional mediators: Tehran is pressing for transit fees
Sarah: blockade relief oil-sanctions relief
Sarah: and guarantees against renewed attacks.
Rich: So ships enter the Gulf through Iranian waters, Tehran collects a fee, and Washington is asked to end the blockade.
Rich: That’s a toll booth attached to a security negotiation.
Sarah: Here’s how the proposed split route would work: inbound vessels would use Iranian waters
Sarah: while outbound traffic would pass through Omani waters without fees.
Sarah: Iran International says the U.S.
Sarah: and regional governments have rejected Tehran’s fee demand.
Rich: Treasury has already removed sanctions on three IRGC-linked entities.
Rich: Before we call that goodwill, somebody needs to explain whether Washington is paying in installments while Tehran still sets the price.
Sarah: Zachary Cohen, Jim Sciutto, Haley Britzky, writing in CNN Politics:
Quote: The US military has exhausted nearly 80% of its interceptors for a key missile defense system as senior US military commanders are warning
Quote: that the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile is “dangerously low,” according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Sarah: CNN says, citing multiple people familiar with the matter, that the U.S.
Sarah: has used nearly 80% of its prewar THAAD interceptor inventory.
Sarah: Senior commanders are calling what’s left dangerously low.
Sarah: We still don’t have the Pentagon’s public position on that figure.
Rich: Look at the timing. Treasury removes sanctions on three IRGC-linked entities.
Rich: Iran asks for guarantees against renewed attacks.
Rich: And the interceptor shelf is reportedly four-fifths burned through.
Rich: Washington’s negotiating leverage just got a very expensive price tag.
Sarah: Careful—sanctions relief and THAAD depletion are separate decisions on the available record.
Sarah: But taken together, they help explain why the administration may be testing concessions while commanders argue for preserving what remains.
Rich: Iran wants security guarantees while it’s also seeking transit fees through Hormuz.
Rich: If CNN’s 80% figure holds, those guarantees won’t come cheap.
Sarah: This one's from Institute for the Study of War:
Quote: US officials and Iranian negotiators continue to present competing interpretations of the emerging arrangement on the Strait of Hormuz.
Quote: The Iranians’ inconsistent messaging in these negotiations is likely a product of the competing Iranian regime factions’ approaches to
Quote: control over the strait and negotiations with the United States writ large.
Sarah: The terms we just heard are more specific, but ISW-CTP says they may still be hard to close.
Sarah: It sees Tehran’s mixed messages as a real fight inside the regime over control of Hormuz and concessions to Washington.
Rich: Tehran is asking for tolls and security guarantees, along with sanctions relief and an end to the blockade.
Rich: But its own power centers may not agree to take yes for an answer.
Rich: Great. Every shipper now has to price Iranian factional politics into the voyage.
Sarah: ISW-CTP also cautions against reading Iran’s strikes on U.S.
Sarah: bases and regional states as simple retaliation.
Sarah: It assesses that Iran is pursuing its own military goals while it negotiates, with the strikes serving as a pressure campaign.
Rich: In that light, the Treasury delistings don’t look like a clean confidence-building gesture.
Rich: Washington may be paying into a negotiation while the other side keeps squeezing the region.
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Host: You’ll find links to every story in the show notes if you want to dig into any of them.
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Host: That’s Iran War Daily for today.
Host: This is a Lantern Podcast.