The UK Government had opposed the imposition of charges for use of the Gulf channel.
Donald Trump has climbed down over his threat to levy a 20% toll on shipping for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz waterway, which had been opposed by the UK.
The US president said the so-called “reimbursement fee” he only announced 24 hours earlier, would be replaced by “trade and investment deals” with Gulf states.
It comes after the outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had called for unrestricted access through the strait, while Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was against the imposition of charges.
The Liberal Democrats had been more strident in their criticism of Mr Trump’s proposed fee, branding it “state-backed highway robbery”, “an act of economic extortion” and “a flagrant violation of international law”.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, the president said the Gulf channel was open to all vessels except for Iran “because of their lying, violent, malicious leadership”.
The US is to reintroduce a blockade of Iranian ports after renewed clashes with Tehran.
Mr Trump said: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.
“Those Investments will be massive but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future. As everyone is aware, we have the largest Dollar Investment into the United States, of any Country in History, but these new Investments will make that Number even larger, and we will see Factories, Plants, and Equipment pour into the United States at Historic levels, which will create additional millions of High Paying American Jobs.”
Speaking to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Ms Cooper said: “We continue to oppose tolls and charges.
“And in fact, that’s the discussion that I had with American colleagues last week while we were at Nato. We were talking about that we could not end up with tolls and with a system on the Strait of Hormuz that would undermine the freedom of navigation and the law of the sea.
“I think what we’re seeing happening at the moment is the escalation of rhetoric around the conflict itself and the putting on of pressure.
“But our position remains the same. We support freedom of navigation. We are opposed to tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, just as we are everywhere else.”
Ms Cooper blamed Iran for “an increasing of pressure on all sides” by attacking commercial shipping in the southern shipping route in Omani waters, saying the move “totally undermines the law of the sea”
