President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States would soon begin guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a humanitarian gesture requested by other countries whose vessels, crews and supplies have been stuck for weeks.
“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 wrote on his Truth Social platform. He also wrote that his representatives have been having “very positive discussions” with Iranian leaders about formally ending the hostilities between the U.S. and Iran that have rattled the region.
Trump did not provide details about the plan, what actions the U.S. would undertake to facilitate the exit of ships or how many vessels are set to exit through the strait. It was not clear from his statement whether the U.S. would only provide ship captains information to guide them to safe routes through the strait or take more active measures.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the logistics and U.S. military risks.
The strait, a key waterway off the coast of Iran, has been closed to shipping, which has trapped oil, fertilizer and petroleum products in the Persian Gulf and driven up energy prices worldwide. An estimated 2,000 ships have been trapped since Iran closed the strait last month to any ships without its permission, and the U.S. announced its own blockade of all ships traveling to or from Iranian ports, causing a standoff with global implications.
According to the International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, more than 20,000 seafarers are stranded on vessels unable to exit through the strait.
Trump said the operation, which he dubbed Project Freedom, would begin Monday morning local time. The new plan reflects a shift in at least Trump’s rhetoric about the strait. He had previously downplayed America’s responsibility for the vessels stuck in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. and Israel launched military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, with Trump saying that he wanted “freedom” for the Iranian people and an end to the country’s nuclear program. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire on April 7 and have spent subsequent weeks intermittently discussing proposals to end the conflict.
Trump’s Sunday post was sent seconds after the conclusion of a PGA Tour event taking place at his Miami-area resort, with Trump looking on from the final hole.
The statement shed little light on a weekend of confusion over the status of negotiations to end the war, which have been stalemated for the past two weeks amid varied reports of progress and accusations of lying.
Trump wrote Sunday evening that “positive” discussions currently underway with Tehran “could lead to something very positive for all.” Guiding ships exiting the strait, he wrote, was “a Humanitarian gesture on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran.”
On Saturday evening, Trump had said he would “soon be reviewing” a new 14-point proposal sent from Iran through Pakistan. “But I can’t imagine that it would be acceptable,” Trump said. In a Sunday morning interview with Kan media, Israel’s public broadcaster, he said, “It’s not acceptable to me. I’ve studied it, I’ve studied everything — it’s not acceptable.”
“The Iranians want to make a deal, but I’m not satisfied with what they’ve offered,” Trump said, according to Kan. “There are things I can’t agree to.”
Just hours later, Iran’s foreign ministry said it had already received the U.S. reply to its proposal.
“The Americans have given their answer to Iran’s 14-point plan to the Pakistani side, and we are currently reviewing it,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a televised interview.
Numerous outlets in Israel and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera provided details on what they said was Iran’s proposal, including a 15-year moratorium on uranium enrichment, turning over to another country or diluting all highly enriched uranium currently in its stockpiles and strictly limiting enrichment in the future.
Baghaei, however, said there were “absolutely no details regarding the country’s nuclear issues in this proposal.”
“These are among the things that I believe are fabricated by the imagination of some media outlets,” he said. “No such thing exists in the plan.”
The plan, Baghaei said, called for a cessation of hostilities followed by a 30-day period during which a detailed deal would be discussed. It proposed a gradual reopening of the strait, clearing of mines and lifting of U.S. sanctions. It called for leaving all nuclear issues for future discussion.
Trump has previously said that Iran had agreed to completely end all enrichment and to work together with the United States to excavate and remove all highly enriched uranium buried underground after U.S. bombing last June. Tehran said at the time that it had made no such agreement.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence organization, in its own post on X on Sunday, said that Trump’s “room for decision-making has narrowed.”
“Iran sets Pentagon a blockade deadline; China, Russia, Europe shift tone against Washington; Trump’s passive letter to Congress” declaring that hostilities are over, “acceptance of Iran’s negotiating terms;” the IRGC said, adding that “there is only one way to read this: Trump must choose between ‘an impossible military operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran.’”
Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.
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