Iran International
Hardline voices in Tehran are escalating rhetoric around the Strait of Hormuz, calling for transit fees on ships even as a US blockade challenges Iran’s control over the strategic waterway.
They portray control over Hormuz—much like uranium enrichment—as a “red line” that Iranian negotiators must not compromise in any future talks.
Amir-Hossein Sabeti, a member of parliament, recently declared that Iran could soon gain “a third source of income called the Strait of Hormuz.”
Mehdi Mohammadi, a strategic analyst and adviser to the parliament speaker, went further, claiming Iran could earn as much as $800 billion annually from the waterway.
“We have only just discovered this treasure,” he wrote.
Energy analyst Ehsan Hosseini said Iran increasingly sees the strait as its main deterrent—likening it to an “atomic bomb”—and is unwilling to trade this existing leverage for uncertain promises of sanctions relief.
Yet experts and critics say the idea of a “Hormuz toll” is economically unrealistic, legally problematic and potentially damaging to Iran’s long-term interests.
“Some want to take us back, to turn the Strait of Hormuz into a bargaining chip and give it away just to have sanctions lifted,” international affairs expert and university professor Naser Torabi said. “This is a disaster. This means defeat,” he added.
Economic commentator Abdollah Babakhani also warned against inflated expectations.
“Experts have a responsibility to stand against exaggerated narratives—such as claims of $50 to $60 billion in revenue from the Strait of Hormuz—so that unrealistic expectations do not form or persist in society,” he wrote on X.
The United States is enforcing a maritime blockade on vessels entering or leaving Iranian ports, part of a broader effort to pressure Tehran after talks failed to produce a breakthrough.
Shipping data from the firm Kpler shows a sharp drop in traffic through the strait, with only six vessels transiting on April 13 compared with 14 the previous day.
Within Iran, some hardliners initially dismissed the blockade as a bluff. Iran’s top joint military command warned that its armed forces could move to prevent the continuation of trade flows across regional waters if the blockade persists.
Yet more than two days into the blockade, Tehran has yet to take direct military action, as both sides explore diplomatic routes to ending the war.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the Strait of Hormuz would soon be open again to maritime traffic, even as US forces continue enforcing the blockade around Iranian ports.
Some moderates and experts in Tehran have warned that aggressively leveraging the strait could ultimately weaken Iran’s position, especially given that regional producers have invested in pipelines and export routes designed to bypass Hormuz.
Ebrahim Gholamzadeh-Zanganeh, head of the Iran-Kuwait Chamber of Commerce, argued that even if a toll were possible, any financial benefit would pale against the opportunity cost of Iran’s isolation.
“The reality is that our losses from sanctions have been—and continue to be—many times these figures each year,” he said.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.