US President Donald Trump has said that the US operation to guide ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz is being halted ‘for a while’.
Trump said that ‘Project Freedom’, which began a day earlier, is being halted ‘by mutual consent’ due to ‘major progress’ towards a deal with Iran.
In a post on social media, Trump said that he made the decision ‘at the request of Pakistan and other countries’, which has acted as a mediator between the US and Iran. He added that the US blockade of Iranian ports will remain in place.
In a post on his online social networking platform Truth Social, the US president further wrote that the campaign against Iran had achieved extraordinary military success. And Project Freedom will be suspended for a short period to see if a deal with Iran can be finalized and signed.
Iranian state media hailed it as a victory, saying the pause was proof that Trump had “stepped back” after “consecutive failures” to reopen the vital waterway for global maritime trade.
The US president’s announcement came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US and Israeli offensive against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, had achieved its objectives.
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