Trump pauses Hormuz escort operation after one day as Rubio declares Iran war operation over — but warns bombing could resume
President Donald Trump has paused the US operation to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing great progress towards a final agreement with Iran, hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the offensive operation against Iran was concluded.
President Donald Trump has paused the United States military operation to guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz after just one day, saying great progress has been made towards a complete and final agreement with Iran.
The operation, called Project Freedom, began on Monday with the aim of helping vessels leave the strait, which has been virtually shut since the US-Israel war on Iran began on 28 February. On Tuesday, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that it would be suspended for a short period to see whether an agreement could be finalised and signed.
“We have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” Trump wrote.
Trump said the decision was based on a request from Pakistan and other countries and on the fact that great progress had been made towards an agreement with representatives of Iran. There was no immediate public reaction from Tehran, where it was very early on Wednesday morning when the announcement was reported.
Hours earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told reporters at the White House that the offensive stage of the campaign, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, was over. “Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation,” Rubio said, adding: “We’re not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What the president would prefer is a deal.”
Rubio also said there would be no shooting unless US forces were shot at first, but warned that Iran could not be allowed to control traffic through the strait. “The Straits of Hormuz do not belong to Iran. They don’t have a right to shut it down and blow up ships and lay mines,” he said.
The pause came with a sharp warning attached. Trump wrote that the operation would be at an end if Iran agreed to give what had been agreed, but otherwise “the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.” The contrasting messages — a declared end to the offensive, a paused escort mission and a threat of heavier bombing — left the immediate future of the confrontation uncertain.
The backdrop to the announcement was a day of renewed violence in the waterway. The US military said on Monday it had destroyed several Iranian small boats, as well as cruise missiles and drones, in the strait. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the four-week-old truce was not over, that a path through the waterway had been secured, and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through, while warning that Washington was watching very closely.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, for its part, issued a new map of the strait with an expanded area of Iranian control and warned vessels on Tuesday to stick to the corridors it had set or face a decisive response. Tehran has insisted that no agreement can begin, and the strait cannot be reopened or secured, unless the United States ends its naval blockade and meets Iran’s demands.
Markets reacted quickly to the prospect of a deal. US crude oil futures fell $2.30 and broke below $100 a barrel shortly after Trump’s post, a closely watched threshold since the conflict sent energy prices soaring two months ago. The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that even if the conflict ended immediately, it would take three to four months to deal with its consequences.
What happens next now depends on whether the reported progress in talks turns into a signed agreement. If it does, the paused escort operation and the declared end of the offensive could mark a genuine turning point after eight months of war. If it does not, Trump’s own warning suggests the pause could be brief — and the strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies normally pass, could return to the centre of a renewed confrontation.
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