Washington and Tehran are close to signing a one-page memorandum to end the armed conflict.
The US leadership’s decision to suspend Operation Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz is linked to progress in the negotiations.
The draft memorandum is based on a 14-point US plan that calls for a cessation of hostilities in the region and the start of a 30-day period of negotiations on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear programme, and the prospects for lifting US sanctions.
US President Donald Trump says he is ‘pausing’ his so-called ‘Project Freedom’, a new interventionist military adventure with the self-described aim of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, amid strict controls being exercised over the waterway by Iran.
Trump made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, just one day after declaring initiation of the project.
Framed as a ‘humanitarian’ effort to free stranded merchant ships, the project was supposed to see the US ‘guide’ commercial ships out of the strait.
Reacting to news about the project, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) warned that any maritime movement running counter to principles declared by the IRGC’s Navy would face serious risks.
IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi stressed that any trespassing vessel would be ‘forcibly stopped’, ruling out as ‘baseless’ statements made to the contrary regarding maritime affairs governing the Persian Gulf.
Iran shut down the strait to enemies and their allies following the launch on February 28 of the United States’ and the Israeli regime’s latest bout of unprovoked aggression targeting the Islamic Republic.
It began exercising far stricter controls last month after Trump announced an illegal blockade of Iranian vessels and ports in continuation of the aggression and in violation of the terms of a ceasefire the US president, himself, had declared earlier.
Last Friday, the IRGC’s Navy pledged to enforce Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei’s ‘historic’ directive concerning the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
Ayatollah Khamenei had issued the directive a day earlier, asserting that foreigners with ‘ominous’ plots targeting the Persian Gulf had no place in the region ‘except at the bottom of its waters’.
The IRGC announced yesterday afternoon that transit through the Strait of Hormuz will gradually become safe and stable as the security situation in the Persian Gulf improves ‘with the aggressor’s threats neutralised’.
The IRGC Navy said in a post on its X account on Wednesday that it has seen a good level of compliance with its regulations from shipping companies and staff seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
It said that Iran will allow a resumption of transit in the key waterway, which is responsible for a fifth of global oil demand, now that threats from the US and the Israeli regime against Iran are subsiding.
‘We thank captains and shipowners in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman for complying with Iran’s Strait of Hormuz regulations and contributing to regional maritime security.
‘With the aggressors’ threats neutralised and new protocols in place, safe, stable passage through SOH will be ensured,’ said the post.
