Iran's parliamentary National Security committee has approved the draft law authorizing fees on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz — charges historically reported as high as $2 million a vessel, though the Law of the Sea convention bars tolls and permits only service charges. Codification is now done; collection is another matter entirely. [1][2]

The traffic picture moved too. Monday this paper watched last week's transit rise run into Treasury's enforcement test; Tuesday brought the next reading — 121 crossings counted over the week, up 2.5 percent from 118, even as PortWatch's daily series ran just 1 to 8 transits a day through mid-August and CNN's weekly tally logged 103 inbound against 89 outbound, roughly a fifth of the pre-war average. Three counters, three verdicts, one strait — and now the fee regime this paper flagged as a second layer of paperwork has cleared its committee. [2] [3]

The system view is the honest one: two levies now attach to the same hull. American sanctions price the insurance; Iran prices the water. The market pays whichever costs less and reroutes accordingly, which is why a committee vote in Tehran matters less than an underwriter's quote in London — and why the only number worth trusting next week is a count read against insurance quotes rather than communiqués. [2]

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco