Trump says US navy will ‘guide’ trapped ships from strait of Hormuz amid ‘very positive’ talks with Iran

Donald Trump has announced that the US will “guide” ships trapped by the Iran war out of the Gulf through the strait of Hormuz on Monday morning, and claimed his representatives were having “very positive” discussions with Iran.

Trump wrote on his social media site that the operation, called “Project Freedom”, would be a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran”.

“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. In all cases, they said they will not be returning until the area becomes safe for navigation, and everything else.”

The president gave no details of how the more than 850 vessels trapped in the Gulf would be freed, and the Wall Street Journal cited a US official as saying the plan doesn’t currently involve US Navy warships escorting vessels through the strait. Instead it would reportedly be a process through which shipping stakeholders can coordinate traffic through the strait.

After Trump’s announcement a senior Iranian official warned any US attempt to interfere in the strait of Hormuz would be seen as a breach of the ceasefire by Tehran.

Iran imposed a blockade on foreign shipping using the Hormuz strait soon after the war began with a US-Israeli attack on 28 February. Trump imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April.

US central command said “Project Freedom” would support “merchant vessels seeking to freely transit through the essential international trade corridor” and would be aided by “guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members”.

Trump’s announcement on Sunday came nearly three days after the presentation of a 14-point peace plan by Iran, which reportedly focused on an initial agreement to open the strait of Hormuz. Iran’s foreign ministry announced on Sunday it had received a response from Washington and would study it.

It was unclear on Sunday night how the Iranian proposal and Trump’s announcement were directly linked, but the president said in his social media post: “I am fully aware that my Representatives are having very positive discussions with the Country of Iran, and that these discussions could lead to something very positive for all.”

However, Trump added: “If, in any way, this humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.”

Until Sunday night, messages between the US and Iran had been conveyed by Pakistan, with no reported direct contacts between the warring parties.

The US president’s upbeat post about freeing Gulf shipping represented a characteristically dramatic change of course and tone. On Saturday, he told reporters he had received the Iranian plan but had not read it in full, then later posted sceptical remarks casting doubt on a diplomatic breakthrough and musing whether the Tehran regime had “paid a big enough price” for its past wrongs, triggering speculation about a new wave of US strikes.

It is more than three weeks since a Pakistani-brokered ceasefire stopped hostilities in the Gulf but failed to open the strait, a critical gateway for oil, gas and petro-chemicals. Oil prices rose to more than $120 (£89) a barrel last week, with dire implications for the global economy.

The continued impasse has cast a shadow over Trump’s delayed trip to China, planned for 14 May. China is Iran’s biggest customer, buying 80% of its oil before the war, accounting for 13% of Chinese oil imports.

An estimated 20,000 sailors are stuck on the tankers, bulk carriers, container ships and other vessels trapped in the Gulf by the closing of the strait, and there are growing concerns for their welfare. Trump said the US had been approached by countries around the world for help.

Trump said on his Truth Social site on Sunday that the US would use its “best efforts to get their Ships and Crews safely out of the Strait”.

There has been growing speculation over the possibility of another round of US strikes against Iran aimed at forcing concessions, including a halt to the country’s nuclear programme.

Israeli press reports quoted senior military officials as saying they were preparing for possible US strikes on Iran, and the likelihood that Tehran would hit back at Israel.

A senior Israeli officer who briefed reporters on Friday said any peace agreement without a cessation of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme and the surrender of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be considered a failure.

Iran’s military-backed Fars news agency had quoted a senior official as saying a return to all-out conflict was “likely”, four weeks after a ceasefire was brokered by Pakistan. Pakistani efforts to rekindle peace talks in Islamabad, after a first round ended without agreement, have so far failed as each side set preconditions that the other refused to fulfil.

Since the arrival of the USS George HW Bush on 24 April, the US has three aircraft carriers in the Middle East for the first time since the Iraq war in 2003.

While issuing threats of a return to bombing, Trump has also argued to Congress in a letter on Friday that the ceasefire meant hostilities had “terminated”, in an effort to claim the administration is not obliged to seek congressional approval for military operation by a legal deadline of 60 days from the start of the war.

A few hours later, Trump contradicted himself, telling a meeting of supporters at a retirement community in Florida: “You know we’re in a war, because I think you would agree we cannot let lunatics have a nuclear weapon.”

The suspension of enrichment for a number of years, and the dilution or export of the stockpile, had been on the table in US-Iranian negotiations that had been under way when Trump launched an attack on Iran on 28 Februaryalongside Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The war has led to an additional crisis as both sides have imposed parallel blockades of the strait of Hormuz, the gateway for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies, as a means of exerting economic pressure to gain concessions, with dire implications for energy prices and the global economy.

On Sunday the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre reported that a bulk carrier ship had come under attack by “multiple small craft” off the Iranian coast near Bandar Sirik at the eastern entrance to the strait of Hormuz. The UKMTO did not name the ship but said all of the crew were safe and advised other shipping to proceed with caution.

Iran had presented a 14-point proposal to the US via Pakistan on Friday, with a reported focus on the lifting of the blockades and a new mechanism for managing the strait. Iranian press reports portrayed this as a comprehensive peace plan to be implemented within 30 days, rather than just a ceasefire.

It also included the payment of compensation to Tehran for war damage, the lifting of sanctions and cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel continues to exchange fire with Hezbollah despite a ceasefire having been declared by Trump.

On Sunday, Israel ordered thousands of people to leave villages in southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese health ministry reported that 20 people had been killed and 46 injured by Israeli strikes over 24 hours from Saturday to Sunday.

The intelligence wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement via state television on Sunday which said: “Trump must choose between an impossible operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” It also cited a “shift in tone” from China, Russia and Europe towards Washington and what it called Iran’s own “deadline” on the blockade. It was unclear what deadline was being referred to.

At the end of last week, the US threatened to tighten its blockade by imposing sanctions against shipping companies found to have made payments to Tehran to move their cargoes through the strait.

Rising petrol prices and a slowing global economy also pose a political threat to Trump as the US approaches congressional elections in November. A Democratic win in one or both chambers would weaken his presidency. Trump has so far shrugged off domestic concerns as he has become increasingly aggressive on the world stage – towards traditional adversaries and allies alike.

Trump has signalled he is prepared to escalate a showdown with Germany over critical remarks about the Iran war made by the country’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz. The Pentagon was reportedly taken by surprise by Trump’s announcement on social media that troops would be redeployed, but on Friday announced 5,000 of its roughly 40,000 troops in Germany would be withdrawn. The next day, Trump told reporters: “We’re going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.”

He did not provide a reason for the redeployment, which would trigger resistance from Congress if it took troop levels in Europe below a minimum level stipulated by the legislature late last year. The congressional lower limit of 76,000 permanently stationed and temporarily deployed troops was imposed after the administration withdrew a brigade from Romania, and earlier threats from Trump to pull troops out of Germany and other European countries.

The Republican chairs of the Senate and House armed services committees criticised the proposed withdrawal from Germany, issuing a statement saying it risked “undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin”. Rather than being withdrawn from Europe, the troops should be moved further east towards Russia, they said.

The US troops at European bases are part of the US commitment to European defence, but they also provide support for US operations in the Middle East and elsewhere.

[Source: The Guardian]