US President Donald Trump has announced a new operation set to liberate ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz. Called Project Freedom, the process will begin on Monday morning Middle East time according to Trump.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said a number of countries had come to him to help free trapped ships and crew members who have been stuck in the vital passage for weeks. Trump said freeing the ships would be a “humanitarian gesture” and “would go a long way in showing goodwill on behalf of all of those who have been fighting so strenuously over the last number of months.”
“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,” he said. “Again, these are ships from areas of the world that are not in any way involved with that which is currently taking place in the Middle East.”
Anyone who interferes with Project Freedom will be “dealt with forcefully”, the president said.
Speaking to Sunrise on Monday morning, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia had been engaging with the US, the UK and France on efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “We’ll continue to engage with them,” she said. “What we do want however is Iran to cut a deal, make sure they get a negotiated outcome that opens the strait to the satisfaction of the United States and the rest of the world.”
On Sunday, Trump said on Truth Social that he did not think he was going to be able to accept Iran’s latest peace proposal because the country has “not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to humanity” over the past four decades. However, in his latest post announcing Project Freedom, the president said his representatives were having “very positive” discussions with Iran.
