{"id":565672,"date":"2026-05-04T13:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/565672\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:17:10","slug":"iran-says-ships-being-guided-by-us-through-hormuz-must-work-with-its-armed-forces-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/565672\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran says ships being \u2018guided\u2019 by US through Hormuz must work with its armed forces | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US has launched an operation to \u201cguide\u201d ships trapped in the Gulf by the Iran<\/a> war through a southern route of the strait of Hormuz, even as Tehran insists that any such transits will have to be coordinated with its armed forces.<\/p>\n

The scheme was announced as \u201cProject Freedom\u201d<\/a> on Sunday night by Donald Trump on his social media page, where he portrayed it as a humanitarian gesture to help crews on hundreds of ships which have been unable to leave the Gulf since the war began.<\/p>\n

Shipping executives have responded cautiously to the move, amid uncertainty over how or if it would work.<\/p>\n

US officials were quoted in press reports as saying the operation would not involve naval escorts. US Central Command said<\/a> it would \u201csupport\u201d the project with its considerable military resources in the region, including guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, drones and 15,000 troops. But it said the emphasis of the mission was to \u201ccombine diplomatic action with military coordination\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, a US-led military organisation, the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), said the US had established an \u201cenhanced security area\u201d<\/a> south of the established prewar shipping lanes through the strait. The route would take ships through Omani territorial waters, the JMIC said, and due to high anticipated traffic, ship operators were told to coordinate with Omani authorities by radio.<\/p>\n

Ships were advised to avoid navigating in or close to the usual shipping lanes which \u201cshould be considered extremely hazardous due the presence of mines that have not been fully surveyed and mitigated\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s military command insisted that ships passing must coordinate with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will manage the security of the strait of Hormuz with all might, and inform all commercial ships and tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without the coordination of the Iranian armed forces stationed in the strait of Hormuz in order not to jeopardise their security,\u201d Maj Gen Ali Abdollahi said, according to Mehr news agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Abdollahi had said Iran would attack \u201cany foreign armed force\u201d which tried to approach or enter the strait, \u201cespecially, the aggressive US army\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was unclear on Monday morning how many ships had chosen to use the US-recommended route. Richard Hext, the chair of Vanmar Shipping and the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, pointed out that Iran had previously declared that unapproved transit of the strait would be considered a \u201cviolation of the ceasefire\u201d agreed last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder these circumstances we should be cautious,\u201d Hext told CNN.<\/p>\n

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday that the only way to reopen the strait was \u201ca coordinated reopening by the United States and Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a meeting of European leaders in Armenia, Macron added: \u201cWe are not going to take part in any military operation in a framework that to me seems unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 850 ships are estimated to have been trapped in the Gulf since the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran on 28 February. Iran imposed a blockade on foreign shipping using the strait of Hormuz soon afterwards and Trump imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April. A Pakistani-brokered ceasefire, announced by Trump in early April<\/a>, stopped hostilities but failed to open the strait.<\/p>\n

An estimated 20,000 sailors are stuck on the tankers, bulk carriers, container ships and other vessels, and there are growing concerns for their welfare. Trump said the US had been approached by countries for help.<\/p>\n

Announcing the project on Truth Social, Trump said the US would use its \u201cbest efforts to get their Ships and Crews safely out of the Strait\u201d. Giving no details on how this would be achieved, the president presented it as a humanitarian gesture \u201con behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have told my Representatives to inform them that 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, and everything else,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf, in any way, this humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

His post was also notable for its claim that there were \u201cvery positive discussions between US representatives and Iran \u2026 and that these discussions could lead to something very positive for all\u201d, in a dramatic change of tone.<\/p>\n

Trump has a record of delivering surprisingly upbeat messages in the hours before global markets open. He initially reacted negatively over the weekend to Iran\u2019s latest 14-point peace proposal, saying Iran had not yet \u201cpaid a big enough price\u201d for its past wrongs. The Israeli state broadcaster, Kan News, reported on Sunday night it had interviewed Trump and quoted him as saying he had \u201cstudied the new Iranian proposal and it is unacceptable to me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s rhetoric over the weekend, prior to his announcement on Sunday, had been particularly bellicose. After telling Congress in a formal letter that the US was not at war, he told a meeting of supporters<\/a> at a retirement community in Florida: \u201cYou know we\u2019re in a war, because I think you would agree we cannot let lunatics have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Map.<\/a><\/p>\n

The war talk boosted speculation over the possibility of another round of US strikes against Iran aimed at forcing concessions, including a halt to the country\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

Israeli press reports quoted senior military officials saying they were preparing for possible US strikes on Iran, and the likelihood that Tehran would hit back at Israel.<\/p>\n

A senior Israeli officer who briefed reporters on Friday said any peace agreement without a cessation of Iran\u2019s uranium enrichment programme and the surrender of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be considered a failure.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s military-backed Fars news agency quoted a senior official as saying a return to all-out conflict was \u201clikely\u201d, weeks after the ceasefire was brokered. Pakistani efforts to rekindle peace talks in Islamabad, after a first round ended without agreement, have so far failed as each side set preconditions that the other refused to fulfil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has launched an operation to \u201cguide\u201d ships trapped in the Gulf by the Iran war through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-565672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}