President Donald Trump said on Sunday (May 3) that the United States was conducting “very positive discussions” with Iran, as he outlined a plan for US forces to escort ships through the blocked Strait of Hormuz beginning Monday.
He said the new maritime operation, which he dubbed “Project Freedom,” was a “humanitarian” gesture for crews aboard the many ships swept up in the blockade and which may be running low on food and other crucial supplies.
“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,” Trump said in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform.
Oil prices dropped more than US$1 a barrel after Trump’s announcement.
Brent crude futures fell to US$106.34 by 10.03pm GMT (Monday, 6.03am, Singapore time), and US West Texas Intermediate was at US$100.22 a barrel.
However, a senior Iranian official warned on Monday against any US attempt to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Any American interference in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire,” Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission in Iran’s parliament, posted on X.
Earlier, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baqaei, told state television that Tehran had submitted a 14-point plan “focused on ending the war”, and that Washington had already responded to it in a message to Pakistani mediators.
“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,” Trump said.
The United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb 28, killing the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader. Tehran responded with strikes on US military bases and Israeli targets in the region.
A ceasefire came into effect Apr 8, and there has been one round of direct peace talks in Islamabad since, with the two countries deadlocked.
Trump said “countries from all over the world” had requested American aid in navigating through the key waterway and out of the Gulf.
“For the good of Iran, the Middle East, and the United States, we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business,” Trump said.
Trump offered few details on how the mission would work. But an operation to guide ships out of the narrow strait could put US service members precariously close to Iranian forces.
In a post on X, US Central Command said starting Monday, its forces would begin supporting Project Freedom with guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms and 15,000 service members.
“Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade,” Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in the post.
As of Apr 29, more than 900 commercial vessels were located in the Gulf, according to maritime intelligence firm AXSMarine. There had been more than 1,100 at the start of the conflict.
“IMPOSSIBLE OPERATION”
US news website Axios, citing two sources briefed on the proposal, reported that Iran set “a one-month deadline for negotiations on a deal to reopen the strait”, dissolve the US naval blockade and end the war.
Earlier Sunday, the Revolutionary Guards sought to put the onus back on Trump, saying he must choose between “an impossible operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
Washington’s European allies are concerned that the longer the strait remains closed, the more their economies will suffer, and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul demanded that it be reopened.
In a call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, Wadephul stressed that Germany supported a negotiated solution but that “Iran must completely and verifiably renounce nuclear weapons and immediately open the Strait of Hormuz”.
The US president, who spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, on Sunday declined to specify what could trigger new American military action.
But in his post, he said that “if in any way, this Humanitarian (ship-guiding) process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully”.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US naval blockade was only part of a broader economic embargo.
“We are suffocating the regime, and they are not able to pay their soldiers. This is a real economic blockade, and it is in all parts of government,” he told Fox News.
In yet more bellicose rhetoric, Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said Iranian forces would sink US ships.
“The US is the only pirate in the world that possesses aircraft carriers. Our ability to confront pirates is no less than our ability to sink warships. Prepare to face a graveyard of your carriers and forces,” he posted on X.
Source: CNA
--Agencies
