Trump Hits Pause on U.S. Mission in the Strait of Hormuz, Citing Pakistan's Mediation

U.S. President Donald Trump announced overnight (between Tuesday and Wednesday) that he is suspending U.S. Navy activity in the Strait of Hormuz. He said the pause of Operation "Project Freedom," designed to help ships in the Persian Gulf transit the strait safely, was at Pakistan's request, which said it is continuing mediation efforts to bring the U.S. and Iran to an agreement.

As a reminder, the operation Trump announced on Sunday aimed to "break" the Iranian blockade in the strait. In the past two days, Iran fired at several ships that tried to pass through and hit two of them. It also launched missiles at American destroyers sailing alongside ships moving through the strait. The destroyers were not hit.

Trump wrote overnight on his own social network, Truth Social, that the decision was made "at the request of Pakistan and other countries, and due to major progress toward a final agreement with Iran's representatives in the negotiations".

Trump added: "We agreed that while the blockade continues, Operation 'Project Freedom' will be paused for a short time to see whether an agreement can be finalized that we can sign". Iran, for its part, responded to the U.S. president's announcement: "The U.S. has failed to achieve its objectives. Trump canceled the operation following Iran's firm positions and warnings". Iran's Tasnim news agency welcomed the move in a post on its X account in Persian: "Trump backed down".