US President Donald Trump on late Tuesday said that he has put the newly launched military operation ‘Project Freedom’ — an operation to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz bypassing the Iranian blockade — to see if Washington can strike a deal with Iranian authorities.
Taking to Truth Social, Trump announced that he has put the operation on hold “for a short period of time” due to Washington and Tehran apparently making “Great Progress…toward a Complete and Final Agreement.”
He said he made the decision at the request of Pakistan, which has been playing the mediator’s role between the US and Iran. Despite putting Project Freedom on hold, Trump said that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports will remain unaltered.
Project Freedom was unveiled by Trump late Sunday and took effect the following morning. He described it as a way to help commercial vessels navigate through the Strait of Hormuz, a 21-mile-wide chokepoint that normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil.
Ever since the US and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran starting February 28, Iran has solidified, and vessel traffic has plummeted, sending global oil prices soaring.
Shortly after the operation began, the US Armed Forces helped two American-flagged vessels pass through the Strait, CENTCOM said.
According to the military on Monday, it reached out to dozens of other shippers that are stuck in the Persian Gulf, describing them as “neutral and innocent bystanders” in the conflict.
The US military further claimed that it has cleared Iranian mines from one part of the Strait of Hormuz that is farther from Iran’s coastline, and began redirecting commercial ships to use the route it has classified as safe to traverse.
Iranian officials have spurned Project Freedom, responding both furiously as well as mocking it, calling it both a violation of the ongoing ceasefire, as well as terming it ‘Project Deadlock’, and issued a strict warning that any ship which tries to transit the Strait without its permission will be targeted.
Trump administration officials say the ceasefire is still holding, despite the exchanges of fire. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Tuesday “the ceasefire is not over,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said hours later that Project Freedom is purely a “defensive operation”, with the US only firing if it is shot at first.
