Ships from China, India, Iraq and Qatar are still required to pay Tehran a fee for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, despite a recent parliamentary mandate that removes general transit restrictions for those four nations. Senior lawmaker Amir Hayat-Moqaddam clarified that while these allies are granted a special status to move through the waterway, they must still pay a coordination fee to use the northern corridor that Iran claims to control.
The transit exemptions were intended to secure political backing from China and ensure the uninterrupted import of medical supplies from India. However, reporting this week suggests there is little evidence to support the existence of these exemptions in practice, as Iran has continued to target commercial vessels in the region, resulting in the death of at least one sailor in November.