{"id":219674,"date":"2026-05-04T20:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219674\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:11:08","slug":"iran-war-live-updates-uae-reports-missiles-and-drone-threats-trump-says-u-s-will-guide-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/219674\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran War Live Updates: UAE Reports Missiles and Drone Threats; Trump Says U.S. Will Guide Ships in Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shipping companies said on Monday that President Trump\u2019s offer<\/a> to provide them safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz fell short of the sort of arrangements that would persuade them to make the trip.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump said on Sunday that the United States would \u201cguide\u201d commercial vessels<\/a> through the strait, which Iran has effectively closed since the war in the Persian Gulf<\/a> started two months ago. But the president provided few details on how the program, Project Freedom, would work.<\/p>\n

On Monday, U.S. Central Command said two American commercial ships had sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, but did not give their names or say when they made their passage.<\/p>\n

But there were reports that other ships were struck. The United Arab Emirates accused Iran of launching a drone attack on an oil tanker owned by ADNOC<\/a>, its state oil company, according to the Emirati state news agency. And a South Korean cargo ship caught fire on Monday after an explosion in the strait, the South Korean foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n

Ali Abdollahi, a top Iranian military commander, warned \u201call commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without coordination with the armed forces,\u201d according to an Iranian state media report on Monday.<\/p>\n

Fearing attacks by Iran on their vessels, shipping companies have been reluctant to send vessels through the strait. They say Iran needs to be part of any plan to move large numbers of vessels through the waterway.<\/p>\n

Without an agreement from Iran, \u201cthere is a risk of hostilities breaking out again,\u201d said Jakob P. Larsen, the chief safety and security officer of the Baltic and International Maritime Council, which represents companies in the maritime sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unclear whether Project Freedom is sustainable in the longer run or whether it will be a limited operation to get some of the trapped ships out,\u201d Mr. Larsen added.<\/p>\n

Tom Bartosak-Harlow, a spokesman for the International Chamber of Shipping, a maritime trade group, said Mr. Trump\u2019s plan lacked detail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is much uncertainty around what Project Freedom means in practice, but any plans put in place must be done in a coordinated and transparent manner,\u201d he said in a statement. Mr. Bartosak-Harlow said the chamber was calling on all countries, Iran included, \u201cto work together to seek a swift and transparent resolution to restore freedom of navigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hapag-Lloyd, a large container shipping company, has several vessels stuck<\/a> in the Persian Gulf that it would like to send through the strait. \u201cAt this stage, our risk assessment remains unchanged, and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for Hapag-Lloyd transits until further notice,\u201d the company said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s stranglehold on the strait has cut off a significant proportion of the world\u2019s supply of oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n

Oil prices<\/a> initially fell on the news of Mr. Trump\u2019s operation, but then jumped on Monday in volatile trading. Tensions between the United States and Iran have underscored the risks surrounding maritime traffic through the strait, a critical energy choke point.<\/p>\n

Despite assurances from Mr. Trump that any interference in the program would be dealt with \u201cforcefully,\u201d ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz have been reluctant to take the chance after reports of attacks on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of vessels passing the strait remain minimal, averaging five a day, but with only three in the last 48 hours,\u201d Bob Savage, the head of markets strategy at BNY, wrote in a research note on Monday.<\/p>\n

Most of the ships that have gone through the waterway since the war began have taken a route that runs close to Iran\u2019s coastline, indicating that the ship operators got Iran\u2019s permission to make the passage.<\/p>\n

Insurance costs are a main reason cargo ships are not traveling through the strait, Ana Subasic, a trade risk analyst at Kpler, said in an email. \u201cEven if a captain is willing to sail, owners, lenders, charterers and cargo interests may refuse to,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cProject Freedom has a moderate chance of extracting some vessels, especially U.S.-flagged or highly coordinated low-risk vessels, but a low chance of fully reopening Hormuz quickly unless it becomes legally clear, less expensive and diplomatically coordinated,\u201d Ms. Subasic said.<\/p>\n

The United States has set up a military blockade southeast of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Oman to prevent Iranian ships transporting the country\u2019s oil to world markets.<\/p>\n

If Mr. Trump were to use military force to get ships through the strait, it would raise questions about whether the United States was providing some form of escort to commercial vessels. Early in the war, Mr. Trump suggested that the United States might deploy naval vessels as escorts, but later he called on other countries to do so.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Central Command said Navy destroyers were operating in the Persian Gulf after sailing through the Strait of Hormuz as part of Project Freedom. It said that U.S. forces were \u201cactively assisting efforts to restore transit for commercial shipping\u201d and that the passage of the two American merchant vessels was a \u201cfirst step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Mr. Trump\u2019s announcement, a vessel near the strait had been hit by projectiles<\/a> and a second had been attacked by multiple small craft, according to a report Sunday from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a security center that is administered by Britain\u2019s Royal Navy.<\/p>\n

\u201cLives of sailors are in utmost danger \u2014 they have such scarcity of drinking water,\u201d said P.A. Khan, who oversees the branch of the Maritime Union of India in Chennai, India. \u201cWhat Trump is saying makes things more difficult and not easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Maritime Organization, which monitors developments, said about 20,000 mariners on around 1,600 vessels were trapped in the Persian Gulf. \u201cMy call is to release the seafarers because they are not at fault,\u201d Arsenio Dominguez, the group\u2019s secretary-general, said in a statement last week.\u202f\u201cThe situation is not improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 30 ships have been attacked since the war began, according to the organization.<\/p>\n

Suhasini Raj contributed reporting from New Delhi; Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shipping companies said on Monday that President Trump\u2019s offer to provide them safe passage through the Strait of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1452,27306,14670,60,33408,164,9,24,63,5007,67494,122,124,123,62208,1069,5251,1554],"class_list":["post-219674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-donald-j","tag-hezbollah","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-oil-petroleum-and-gasoline","tag-persian-gulf","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-trump","tag-united-states-defense-and-military-forces","tag-united-states-international-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}