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A military operation called “Project Freedom” has been launched by the US Navy to ensure the safe passage of merchant ships through closed areas. Hormuz Rivera spokesman for the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.
The Strait of Hormuz has been at the center of the US-Israeli conflict in Iran that began on February 28, causing chaos that has raised commodity prices around the world.
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Iran has blocked the route by threatening to deploy mines, drones, missiles and rapid attack weapons. The U.S. has countered by blocking Iranian ports and increasing escort traffic on merchant ships.
A spokesman for the US military said that ship owners and insurance companies have responded well to the project, which is “in the early stages” and aims to ensure that commercial vessels can pass through the channel to benefit the global and regional economy.
Later on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press conference in Washington, DC, that 10 sailors have died as a result of the ongoing war in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that the United States military has destroyed seven Iranian boats operating in the waterway.
Rubio said the U.S. will continue to improve the passageway to restore freedom of movement.
Operation ‘defensive in nature’
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the project is aimed at reopening the river and allowing stranded merchant ships to pass through.
“Project Freedom is defensive in nature, focused, short-term (and) with one goal: to protect innocent commercial vessels in Iran,” Hegseth said at a briefing Tuesday at the Pentagon.
He said that as part of Project Freedom, the US military would not be required to enter Iranian waters or airspace, adding that Iran would no longer be allowed to block international trade.
“Iran … cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their cargo from international shipping lanes,” Hegseth said, adding that two US merchant ships, along with the country’s warships, had already passed through.
“They said they’re managing the problem – they’re not,” the secretary said.
Iran denied any such crossing had taken place, although shipping company Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax, a US cruise ship, had left the Gulf under US military escort on Monday.
Several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires on Monday, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said it had been attacked by Iran, with an oil port under surveillance on Monday. On Tuesday, the Iranian military denied attacking the UAE in recent days.
Iran decided to fire a warning shot at a US warship approaching the channel, forcing it to turn back.
Alexandru Hudisteanu, a military expert and diplomat, told Al Jazeera that the US operation to force the opening of the Strait of Hormuz increased the risk of destabilization on both sides, especially Iran.
He said it in pushing two ships to the junction Yesterday, the US “blocked Iran to its core”.
After presenting a new map of the Strait of Hormuz with an enlarged Iranian territory, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned ships on Tuesday to follow their established routes or face a “decisive response”.
US President Donald Trump has said Iran’s military has been reduced to firing at “seed shooters” and that Tehran wants peace, despite the conflict.
“They’re playing games, but I’m telling you, they want to make a deal,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office.
On Tuesday, Air Force General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that there are more than 1,500 ships with about 22,500 people trapped inside the Gulf, but that the attack by Iran against the US military fell “below the limits of resuming major military operations at this time”.
Asked what Iran would have to do to break the ceasefire, Trump said: “They know they don’t have to.”
