The US envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, says Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz violates the basic law of the sea and international law, Al Jazeera reports.

Waltz has condemned reports that Iran is launching a Persian Gulf Straits Authority, which would impose tolls on ships crossing the waterway, calling the dispersal of seamen in the Strait a “cynical bid for leverage”.

“Collective punishment of the entire world to try to resolve some type of dispute is unacceptable, it’s immoral, and it’s illegal in international law,” he says.

“This should be a simple demand. The removal of mines from an international waterway that you cannot exact illegal tolls. We have to address these violations, here in the council, and we have to ask ourselves if a country chooses to oppose such a simple proposition, do they really want peace?” Waltz asks.