General Discussion

It is such a narrow waterway, that anyone in the region can block it, including the U.S.

I am skeptical about the reporting on the size of the fees, because the leakage of energy out of the Persian Gulf has been pretty big, including the cross-Arabian Peninsula pipeline. Iraq is shipping oil out through Syria. Iran just does not have that much leverage relative to the other Gulf States. The Gulf States could also crush Iran's economy by flooding the oil market.

This is a negotiation. There is not a clear upper hand, other than the U.S. has the weakest hand of everyone because our population hates this war, it is absurdly expensive to maintain a big military presence on the other side of the world, everyone in the region hates us, and worst of all, the U.S. has one of the highest production costs of any oil producer in the world. Most if not all fracking wells shut down if oil drops to $50 bbl.