Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sharply attacked a US plan to impose a 20 percent fee on commercial ships passing through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. Criticising Washington’s move, he said that if the plan were implemented, the United States would become a “pirate” state, and that a superpower that had long fought against piracy could not now take on the role of a pirate itself.
US President Donald Trump had recently announced that he would again impose a naval blockade on Iran’s ports in the Strait of Hormuz, and that the United States would collect a 20 percent charge from all cargo ships passing through the narrow and important international waterway to cover the cost of keeping it open. Speaking at a public rally in Sao Paulo in response to Trump’s announcement, the veteran Brazilian leftist leader expressed his anger. Lula said Trump had announced he would open the Strait of Hormuz, but that in return the oil owner of every ship passing through would have to pay 20 percent; in the past, such acts had been regarded as piracy, and such behaviour from a big country like the United States was in no way acceptable. He warned that because of the ongoing conflict, the prices of fuel oil and of essential food items such as rice, lentils, tomatoes and onions were soaring in Brazil’s domestic market.
Iran blockaded the vital oil-transport route in February this year after attacks by the United States and Israel; the situation calmed somewhat when a ceasefire was agreed between the two sides in June, but with tensions flaring again Trump is once more threatening a blockade and steep charges. Lula, 80, who will contest Brazil’s general election in October for a fourth term, said his government had already taken several emergency steps, including special tax waivers on fuel, to give ordinary people relief as international oil prices rose.
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