Iran’s parliament has prepared a 10-clause proposal to codify permanent rules for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, moving the waterway’s contested status from ad-hoc military closures to a legislated transit regime.
Mohammadreza Rezaei-Kouchi, head of parliament’s construction committee, told Iranian state television on Sunday that the proposal “will soon become a law” and can be fast-tracked through the usual legislative stages. Key clauses disclosed in a BBC Persian report include a strict prohibition on the passage of any cargo “belonging to or associated with Israel,” a ban on transit for countries deemed “hostile to Iran” unless the Supreme National Security Council grants an exception, and a requirement that nations that caused damage to Iran during the current war pay compensation before being permitted passage.
The framework matches the position a presidential aide floated earlier this month, in which Iran signalled the strait could reopen only under a new legal regime involving transit fees linked to war reparations. If enacted, the law would replace the current operational tool — IRGC-ordered closures and re-openings — with a permanent statutory framework that any future Iranian government would inherit.
The timing is politically sensitive. The parliament move comes on the same day Iran’s state media denied entering fresh Islamabad talks and US Marines boarded the Iranian cargo ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman.
For Sri Lanka, which imports nearly all its crude, refined fuel and LPG through the Hormuz route, a codified transit regime carries longer-tail risk than the current on-off closures. Any formal transit fee structure or inspection requirement would pass through to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s landed costs and, ultimately, to domestic fuel prices. The proposal’s fate — how it moves through parliament and whether the Guardian Council approves it — will be the watchdate for Colombo’s energy planners in the weeks ahead.
