“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The halt of the U.S.-led effort to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which began early Monday, comes as Iranian armed forces have fired drones and missiles at U.S. military assets in the region and the U.S. military has retaliated, sinking six Iranian small boats.
Earlier on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire is holding, but he emphasized that Project Freedom is a temporary defense effort to restart shipping through the strait, which has been effectively choked off for weeks by Iran.
“This is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon, while later in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists at the White House that Operation Epic Fury is over.
Project Freedom was enforced by several U.S. Navy destroyers and air- and land-based U.S. military assets, along with about 15,000 sailors in the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) region
First was the airstrike last June intended, he said, to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear program. Then came the intense February air campaign carried out with Israel and designed, he said, to deliver regime change and a popular uprising. Then he bet on a blockade of Iranian shipping to end the Iranian stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, in a new effort to break Iran’s control over the strait, Mr. Trump has announced a plan with few details to help guide stranded ships out through it. Iran responded with missiles and drones, and given the risks, most tankers are unlikely to dare crossing the strait for now.
But Mr. Trump’s conviction that these tactics will bring about Iran’s capitulation is deeply flawed, officials and analysts say. They say it is a misreading of the Islamic Republic’s strategy, psychology and capability for adaptation. The Iranian government believes that it has the upper hand for now, and that it can withstand economic pressure, as it has in the past, longer than Mr. Trump can tolerate rising energy prices brought about by the halting of traffic through the strait.
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