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Can Iran legally impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz?

Article 38 provides vessels a right of unimpeded “transit passage” through more than 100 straits worldwide, including the Strait of Hormuz.

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Tehran has sought to tighten its grip over the Strait of Hormuz by charging tolls on vessels to ensure safe passage, in conjunction with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Reuters reported.

The following explains law governing toll collections and ​actions that countries opposed to tolls might take.

WHAT IS THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ?

The Strait of Hormuz is ‌a waterway connecting the Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, and located within Iran’s and Oman’s territorial waters. It is perhaps the world’s most important energy shipping lane. About 20% of the world’s oil passes through it.

The waterway is about 104 miles (167 km) long. Its width varies, ​and at its narrowest point provides 2-mile channels for inbound and outbound shipping, separated by a 2-mile buffer ​zone.

Iran effectively closed the strait following U.S.-Israeli strikes on the country, and has demanded a right ⁠to collect tolls as a precondition to ending the war. The status of any toll collections so far could not ​immediately be confirmed.

WHAT LAW GOVERNS PASSAGE ON THE STRAIT?

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, sometimes known as UNCLOS, was ​adopted in 1982 and has been in force since 1994.

Article 38 provides vessels a right of unimpeded “transit passage” through more than 100 straits worldwide, including the Strait of Hormuz.

The treaty allows a country bordering a strait to regulate passage within its “territorial sea,” up to 12 nautical ​miles from its border, but shall permit “innocent passage.”

Passage is innocent if it is not prejudicial to a country’s peace, good ​order and security. Military action, serious pollution, spying and fishing are not permitted. The concept of innocent passage was key to a 1949 International Court ‌of ⁠Justice case concerning the Corfu Channel, along the coasts of Albania and Greece, read the report.

Approximately 170 countries and the European Union have ratified UNCLOS. Iran and the United States have not. This raises the question of whether the treaty’s rules affording freedom of maritime navigation have become part of customary international law, or bind only ratifying countries.

Experts say UNCLOS has become or is generally ​viewed as customary international law. ​Some non-ratifying countries may ⁠argue that they need not follow the treaty because they persistently and consistently object. Iran has argued that it has made such objections. The United States disputes Iran’s authority to charge ​tolls.

HOW CAN TOLLS BE CHALLENGED?

There is no formal mechanism to enforce UNCLOS. The International Tribunal for ​the Law ⁠of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, which the treaty established, and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands could issue rulings but cannot enforce them.

Countries and businesses have other potential means to counteract tolls.

A willing state or coalition of states could ⁠try to ​enforce the treaty. The UN Security Council could pass a resolution opposing ​tolls.

Companies could redirect shipments away from the Strait of Hormuz, and have begun doing so. Countries could expand sanctions targeting financial transactions believed to benefit ​Iran’s government, by sanctioning companies willing to pay tolls.

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Illegal mine collapses in China, killing five just days after Shanxi disaster

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A mine shaft collapse during an illegal mining operation in China’s ​southwestern Yunnan province killed five people ‌and injured one, state media reported, days after the country’s deadliest mining accident since 2009 left ​at least 82 dead.

The incident occurred ​around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday (2030 GMT on ⁠Saturday) in Yunnan’s Huize County, state ​news agency Xinhua reported, citing local authorities. ​The report did not specify what mineral was being mined.

There was only one survivor out of six ​people rescued from the site and ​sent to hospital, Xinhua said, and the person ‌was ⁠in stable condition.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the incident, which follows the May 22 deadly gas explosion ​at a ​coal ⁠mine in the northern Shanxi province. Apart from the 82 people ​killed, two remain missing and ​128 ⁠were injured.

Chinese authorities have vowed a thorough investigation into the Shanxi disaster, as preliminary ⁠findings ​uncovered unmarked tunnels, missing trackers and ​fake doors at the mining site.

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Iran’s strongest card in nuclear talks: its highly enriched uranium

Uranium ⁠is highly enriched when it has reached 20% purity, and weapons-grade as of around 90%.

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Iran and the United States are in discussions to extend their ceasefire so as to start negotiations on issues including Tehran’s nuclear program, where Washington insists Iran must not be able to make a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported.

While much of Iran’s uranium enrichment infrastructure was destroyed or badly damaged when Israel and the U.S. bombed ​it in June, a large part of the highly enriched uranium it amassed is thought to have survived. That is the biggest U.S. concern ahead ‌of nuclear talks.

On Friday Trump said in a social media post that Iran must agree that the enriched uranium buried underground after earlier U.S. strikes be “unearthed” and destroyed in coordination with Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

WHAT IS HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM?

One of two fissile materials, along with plutonium, with which one can make the core of a nuclear bomb.

While plutonium is usually extracted from the spent fuel ​of a nuclear reactor, requiring large and highly visible infrastructure, uranium can be enriched using centrifuges that have a much smaller footprint.

Two of Iran’s three enrichment sites ​that are known to have been operating when Israel and the U.S. attacked in June were underground. The above-ground one was clearly destroyed.

Uranium ⁠is highly enriched when it has reached 20% purity, and weapons-grade as of around 90%.

Modern reactors generally use fuel enriched to up to 5%, but some use fuel ​enriched to higher levels. The ones that power U.S. nuclear submarines reportedly use fuel enriched beyond 90%.

HOW MUCH DOES IRAN HAVE?

Iran has not informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog of ​the fate of its enriched uranium since the June attacks or let its inspectors return to the sites where it was stored.

The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates Iran had these amounts when the first Israeli bombs fell on June 13:

– 440.9 kg enriched to up to 60%

– 184.1 kg enriched to up to 20%

– 6,024.4 kg enriched to up to 5%

– 2,391.1 kg enriched to up to ​2%

According to an IAEA yardstick, the amount at 60% is enough, if enriched further, for 10 nuclear weapons. The 20% stock would be enough for one and the ​5% could produce 12, read the report.

How much has survived is unclear. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said his agency believes “a bit more than 200 kg” of the 60% stock is stored at a tunnel complex ‌in Isfahan that ⁠appears to have been largely unharmed by the June attacks. Some was also at the Natanz nuclear site, he said.

WHY THE CONCERN?

U.S. concern has been focused on the 60% material because that would be easiest and thus quickest to make a bomb with. Washington wants it gone. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

As the enrichment level of uranium increases, it becomes exponentially easier to enrich further. Getting from 60% to 90% is easier than getting from unenriched to 5%.

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal ​between Iran and major powers that kept ​Tehran at a far greater distance ⁠from being able to produce an atom bomb than it is at now. The U.S. withdrawal in 2018 caused the deal to unravel, and Iran quickly expanded its atomic program.

Under that 2015 deal, Iran did not enrich beyond 3.67%.

Even at 90%, however, it takes ​more steps to produce the core of a bomb. When it is enriched, the uranium is in gas form. It ​must then be turned into ⁠metal for use in a weapon.

CAN YOU MOVE IT?

Yes. Iran moved enriched material between sites under IAEA monitoring before the June attacks.

Under the 2015 deal and a precursor to it, Iran’s stocks of uranium enriched to up to 20% were diluted or turned into reactor fuel plates and shipped out of the country.

Moving nuclear material like highly enriched uranium internationally is ⁠a sensitive but ​relatively routine procedure.

“It requires some precaution but it can be moved,” Grossi told PBS in March when ​asked about the 60% material.

WILL IRAN GIVE IT UP?

Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the 60% material should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said last week.

Iranian sources say Tehran might agree ​to send half of it to a third country, receiving uranium enriched to 5% in return, and dilute the other half inside Iran, Reuters reported.

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Pakistani FM arrives in Washington to meet US Secretary of State

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Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, has arrived in Washington on an official visit.

During the trip, Ishaq Dar is expected to meet and hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio on bilateral and regional issues.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said that after concluding his meetings and official engagements, Dar will return to Islamabad later the same day.

Pakistan is playing a mediating role in the negotiations between Iran and the United States.

 

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