President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the United States will launch an operation to free civilian ships trapped in the Strait of Hormuz since the war with Iran began. The mission, named “Project Freedom,” is scheduled to commence the next day. Trump said it via a Truth Social post.
Donald Trump drops an update on the Strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump said the operation is limited to extracting merchant vessels flagged in countries not involved in the Iran war. “I have told my Representatives to inform them that we will use best efforts to get their Ships and Crews safely out of the Strait,” Trump wrote. “In all cases, they said they will not be returning until the area becomes safe for navigation, and everything else,” he added.
However, he did not provide details on how they would carry out the extraction or whether Iran would permit it. The strait has been largely impassable since hostilities broke out. Iran has been firing on vessels and laying mines in the waterway. About 20% of global crude oil moves through the channel. So its closure has driven up oil prices and gasoline costs.
Moreover, Donald Trump framed the initiative as a humanitarian measure rather than an effort to restore the way things used to be. “The Ship movement is merely meant to free up people, companies, and Countries that have done absolutely nothing wrong — They are victims of circumstance,” Trump continued. “This is a Humanitarian gesture on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran,” he added.
The Department of Defense later directed CNBC to a U.S. Central Command social media post that outlined a broader objective: to “restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.”
CENTCOM stated the mission will involve guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members. “A quarter of the world’s oil trade at sea and significant volumes of fuel and fertilizer products are transported through the strait,” the CENTCOM post read.
Negotiations toward a permanent end to the Iran war have not produced a deal.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu for Mandatory.
