President Donald Trump announced that he was pausing Project Freedom, the mission of assisting commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday evening.
Although the U.S. blockade against Iranian ports will remain in effect, Trump said there has been great military success and progress toward a final agreement with Iran.
“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,” Trump wrote in his post.
The latest development in the war against Iran comes at the request of Pakistan and other countries, Trump added.
Pakistan has been a key player in mediating peace talks between the United States and Iran.
Contrasting his Tuesday announcement, Trump spoke with radio host Hugh Hewitt on May 4 about the ongoing conflict and said the timeframe for ending the war might be extended.
“We’ve taken out much of what we’d have to do,” Trump said, adding the war would last “probably another two weeks. Two weeks, maybe three weeks.”
The president reinforced his stance that Tehran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon and told the radio host: “One way or the other, we win.”
“We either make the right deal, or we win very easily. From the military standpoint, we’ve already won that,” Trump said. “You’ve heard me say it a million times, and other people say it: [Iran] had 159 ships. … Now, they have none. They’re all at the bottom of the sea.”
Project Freedom was the product of weeks of preparations to establish a safe and defensive passage through the Strait of Hormuz for more than 1,500 commercial vessels stuck inside the Persian Gulf. The Iranian regime made disrupting shipping traffic through the international waterway a main focus of its retaliatory tactics.
About 15,000 U.S. military personnel, 25 U.S. warships, and more than 100 aircraft were assigned to support Project Freedom.
Earlier Tuesday before Trump’s announcement on pausing the operation, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said it was actively engaged with missile and drone strikes from Iran. It was the second day of Iranian attacks against the country.
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