Donald Trump paused Project Freedom on Wednesday after saying trump saudi arabia had made "Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement." The pause followed his Tuesday push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and let trapped ships and crews leave the Gulf.
Trump had insisted over the weekend that Iran had not yet "paid a big enough price," then described Project Freedom as a "humanitarian gesture" on Tuesday. The shift put the fate of the shipping route, and the reported talks around it, back into the center of the dispute.
Trump's Paused Plan
Trump announced Project Freedom as a way to reopen the strait and weaken Iran's chokehold on the route. By the early hours of Wednesday, Trump said he would pause the plan to give negotiations a chance, signaling a change in posture after the earlier pressure campaign.
The same day, Axios and reported that the United States, Iran and Pakistani mediators were close to a one-page memorandum of understanding. The reported text would declare an end to the war and open a 30-day negotiating period.
Hormuz Talks And Blockades
The reported talks would address Iran's nuclear programme, US sanctions and Iran's frozen assets. Over the course of the reported 30-day talks, both sides would lift their parallel blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, tying shipping access directly to the talks' first month.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said reopening the strait could be possible, but Tehran said the blockade had to end first before discussion of anything else. That leaves the shipping route at the center of the bargaining, not as a side issue.
Rezaei Rejects Proposal
Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, rejected the reported proposal as an "American wishlist, not a reality." Before the war, Iran was offering a moratorium on uranium enrichment of five years, while the United States was demanding 20 years; the reported new proposal suggests 12 or 15 years.
The next step now turns on whether the reported memorandum becomes an actual agreement and whether the parallel blockades are lifted over the coming 30 days. Those terms will decide whether Project Freedom stays paused or becomes part of a wider bargain over the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions and frozen assets.
