Two afternoons, exactly. That’s how long it took for the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to make a new, umpteenth, lurch in his positions on the war against Iran. This Tuesday he announced the suspension of the new Project Freedom, the mission to “guide” merchant ships trapped by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and achieve their exit, just 48 hours after having proclaimed its creation, and just four hours after his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, declared that this operation opened a new phase in the conflict.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Tuesday the suspension of Project Freedom, the operation to remove merchant ships trapped in the Persian Gulf due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The statement, in a message on his social networks, comes just 48 hours after he announced that this mission was being launched.
According to the president, the decision to pause the operation “for a short period of time” was made at the request of Pakistan, the mediating country in the peace negotiations between Washington and Tehran, and thanks to the “great progress” made to reach a definitive agreement to end the war. During this pause, he wrote in a message on Truth, his social network, “we will see whether or not an agreement can be reached and signed.” Meanwhile, the US blockade in Hormuz on ships coming from Iranian ports will remain in place.
“Following the requests of Pakistan and other countries, the tremendous Military Success we have achieved during the campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that great progress has been made towards a Complete and Final Agreement with the Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, although the Blockade will remain in full effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see if the Agreement can be closed and signed, or No,” the Republican wrote.
Just hours before, Marco Rubio (who has temporarily added the duties of White House spokesperson – the incumbent, Karoline Leavitt, is on maternity leave – to his usual duties as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor) dedicated a press conference to describing Project Freedom as something essential to guarantee freedom of navigation, dissuade other countries from blocking other sea lanes essential for global trade, and restore confidence to the markets.
“Operation Epic Fury has ended, as the president notified Congress (in a letter last Friday). We have already closed that stage” and the new guidance operation has begun another, Rubio declared in a packed White House press room. “Under no circumstances can we allow Iran to normalize attacking merchant ships and placing mines in the water,” he argued. “If we live in a world where a rogue state like the Iranian regime claims control of international waters as a matter of course, it will not be long before (others follow suit and) see this repeated in many other critical maritime bottlenecks for shipping around the world.”
The United States faces a dilemma towards Iran. Determined to show an image of strength, he maintains his pressure on the adversary in the Strait of Hormuz. But, unwilling to enter into new hostilities at the moment, he temporizes his enemy’s actions in the area and assures that, despite the Iranian missile launches, the agreement reached almost a month ago remains in place. Both Washington and Tehran assure, each on their own, that it is their forces that control this strategic bottleneck and that the other has no chance of prevailing.
Iran “knows what it has to do, but more importantly, it knows what it does not have to do” to violate the ceasefire that has been in force since April 8, President Donald Trump had previously stated this Tuesday from the Oval Office, while in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates has denounced that its defense systems had had to intervene to intercept missiles and drones coming from Iran. A day earlier, that Gulf monarchy had also warned of an avalanche of projectiles coming from its neighbor and adversary. to thwart the American attempt to break the blockade in the strait, the mission the United States calls Project Freedom.
1,550 merchant ships trapped
With this operation, the United States seeks to free those who, according to yesterday’s data from the Pentagon, are still trapped in the Persian Gulf by the war, and whose living conditions are deteriorating as the conflict continues without signs of an agreement that will allow the strategic maritime crossing to be reopened, despite the fact that Trump insists time and again that the talks taking place under the mediation of Pakistan “are going very well” and Iran wants to reach an agreement.
But it’s not just about the release of the vessels themselves. It is also a psychological war, in which each party wants to demonstrate that it dominates the strait and, therefore, has the winning card in that game, while avoiding an escalation that could lead to a resumption of attacks – something that is not convenient for either party today. Neither Iran wants to receive new bombings nor does the Trump Administration have a great appetite to continue, it has skyrocketed fuel prices and left presidential popularity to the ground.
The Iranians “do not control the Strait,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said early this Tuesday in a press conference at the Pentagon with the Chief of the General Staff, Dan Caine. Iran “is grasping at straws,” noted the top US military commander. But from the White House, Trump pointed out: “We don’t want to go and kill people. I don’t want to. It’s too hard.” And he insisted on demanding that Iran accept the United States’ conditions – above all, give up its nuclear program – and sign a peace agreement. “They should wave the white flag, the white flag of surrender,” the president maintained.
Both sides have cards to play. The United States prevents the passage of ships from Iranian ports. “Our blockade is working, it’s like a steel barrier,” Trump boasted this Tuesday. “No one is going to challenge him.” But Iran clearly maintains its ability to limit access due to the maritime bottleneck it has imposed since the beginning of the war. And its attacks in the last two days, with speedboats and drones, make it clear that the United States does not dominate the strait, although it boasts that it has already been able to get two ships out of the quagmire. Although Trump, as he pointed out this Tuesday in the Oval Office, considers that the Iranian boats only launch “pellet.”
Iran, for its part, has expanded the area it blocks for Iran, due to the “close cooperation of the United Arab Emirates with Israel and the United States against Iran,” as the regime has announced through its media. Tehran proclaims that it has expanded the scope of its sovereignty in the Strait of Hormuz with the aim of preventing the export of Emirati oil through the Habshan-Fujaira pipeline, and has declared that “the United Arab Emirates is under a naval blockade by Iran,” reports Ali Falahi.
New details about Project Libertad
The Pentagon provided new details on Tuesday about Project Freedom, which the United States describes as a part diplomatic and part military operation. It involves, as Caine has specified, destroyer ships equipped with guided missiles, as well as .
These troops would not need to enter Iranian waters or airspace, according to Hegseth. Merchant ships guided by US troops “will see, hear and, frankly, feel our military power around them, at sea, in the air and by radio,” said the Chief of Staff, who confirmed that this Tuesday US-flagged merchant ships have already transited through the area, and “we anticipate that more will transit further north in the Gulf in the coming days.”
The head of the Pentagon has also specified that the operation, in any case, will be temporary. And the United States hopes that the rest of the world will eventually take on the task of guaranteeing the free flow of trade through that strategic passage, through which 20% of the world’s gas and oil and a third of fertilizers and other basic products circulate for the global economy.
