Iran's ambassador to France, Mohammad Amin-Nejad, told Bloomberg in Paris Friday that Iran and Oman "have been discussing a permanent toll system for the Strait of Hormuz." [1] He framed the arrangement as user-pays: "Iran and Oman must mobilize all their resources both to provide security services and to manage navigation in the most appropriate manner. This will entail costs, and it goes without saying that those who wish to benefit from this traffic must also pay their share." [1] He used the word "permanent." Muscat did not reply.

The paper's Wednesday major on Iran's coordinate polygon took the position that the Hormuz monetization regime had moved from paper to map. The Friday Amin-Nejad quote moves it from wartime measure to stated post-war architecture. Oman's Foreign Ministry, the Sultan's office, and Muscat's press apparatus have published nothing this week confirming, denying, or framing the bilateral track. The April 5 deputy-ministers meeting in Muscat and the May 18 Baghaei "formalize control" line are the prior Tehran-side disclosures. [2] The Omani side remains an absence.

Five Gulf states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE — wrote jointly to the International Maritime Organization Friday warning shipping companies not to comply with Iran's PGSA map. [3] Oman did not sign. That, too, is a public position taken by silence.

The Muscat document the hormuz-blockade-and-energy thread has been waiting for since March is still missing. The arithmetic of the toll — up to $2 million per ship under the Iranian parliament's draft, an implied $100 billion-a-year regime — is now stated. The counterparty has not signed.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem