Trump says U.S. will guide stranded ships through Strait of Hormuz

The plan is an arm's-length effort to unblock the vital supply waterway

- Lara Seligman, Robbie Gramer & Alexander Ward

Donald Trump's announcement comes as he said he would likely reject an Iranian proposal to end the war.

(BLOOMBERG)

President Trump said Sunday that the U.S. would start guiding commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz where they have been trapped by the war between the U.S. and Iran, in an arm's-length effort to unblock the vital supply route.

“Countries from all over the World...have asked the United States if we could help free up their Ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “For the good of Iran, the Middle East, and the United States, we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”

The new mechanism, which Trump dubbed “Project Freedom,” is effectively a coordination cell to move traffic through the Strait, involving countries, insurance companies and shipping organizations, according to two senior U.S. officials. It doesn’t currently involve U.S. Navy warships escorting vessels through the strait, the official s said.

But European diplomats and shipowners recalled previous failed attempts by the president to get shipping moving, including his call for NATO allies to send warships, a request that went unheeded. Without warship escorts, a coordination cell is unlikely to markedly change the situation in the strait, they said.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recently deployed naval mines in the strait, posing new dangers for commercial shipping traffic through the waterway, according to an official. Before the conflict, some 20% of the world’s oil supply passed through the strait.