{"id":467995,"date":"2026-05-04T14:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467995\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T14:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:13:13","slug":"us-led-taskforce-tells-ships-to-reroute-in-new-effort-to-reopen-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467995\/","title":{"rendered":"US-led taskforce tells ships to reroute in new effort to reopen Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>US<\/strong> has <strong>launched<\/strong> an effort to \u201cguide\u201d<strong> stranded ships<\/strong> from the Iran-gripped<strong> Strait of Hormuz,<\/strong> as it tries to counter economic disruptions which have outlasted the peak of fighting with no peace deal in sight.<\/p>\n<p>A day after US President Donald Trump announced what he called Project Freedom, the Joint Maritime Information Centre said the US had set up an \u201cenhanced security area\u201d south of typical shipping routes and urged mariners to co-ordinate closely with Omani authorities \u201cdue to anticipated high traffic volume\u201d. The strait lies between Iranian and Omani territory.<\/p>\n<p>The centre warned that passing close to the usual routes, known as the traffic separation scheme, \u201cshould be considered extremely hazardous due the presence of mines that have not been fully surveyed and mitigated\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The US-led maritime taskforce\u2019s announcement marked the start of the effort to revive traffic and restore confidence among commercial vessels passing through the strait. It risks unravelling the fragile ceasefire that has held even without progress on the issues that sparked the war.<\/p>\n<p>It was unclear whether any vessels had accepted the US offer and Iran\u2019s military officials told state broadcaster IRIB on Monday that ships must co-ordinate with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe warn that any foreign military force \u2014 especially the aggressive US military \u2014 that intends to approach or enter the Strait of Hormuz will be targeted,\u201d Major General Pilot Ali Abdollahi said.<\/p>\n<p>The moves came as \u201cunknown projectiles\u201d struck a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the British military, in a second attack in hours.<\/p>\n<p>The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre issued the alert, saying a tanker had been targeted off Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, at around 11.40pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"692\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/us-led-taskforce-tells-ships-to-reroute-in-new-effort-to-reopen-strait-of-hormuz.jpg\" alt=\"POLITICS Iran\" data-title=\"POLITICS Iran\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Graphics\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Graphics\/Press Association Images\" data-credit=\"PA Graphics\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>(PA Graphics)<\/p>\n<p>All crew were reported safe and no environmental impact was reported, the centre said.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Sunday, a cargo ship travelling north near Sirik, Iran, said it had been attacked by multiple small craft, according to the UKMTO. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n<p>They were the first reported attacks in the area since April 22.<\/p>\n<p>The disruption of the waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world\u2019s oil typically passes has become one of the most enduring consequences of the war that the US and Israel launched on February 28. It has squeezed countries in Europe and Asia that depend on Persian Gulf supplies and added new volatility to energy prices for households and businesses worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Announcing the ship shepherding effort in a social media post on Sunday, Mr Trump promised \u201cneutral and innocent\u201d countries \u201cthat we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777903993_782_us-led-taskforce-tells-ships-to-reroute-in-new-effort-to-reopen-strait-of-hormuz.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump\" data-title=\"The top photos of the day by AP\u2019s photojournalists\" data-copyright-holder=\"AP\" data-copyright-notice=\"Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.\" data-credit=\"Matt Rourke\" data-usage-terms=\"This content is intended for editorial use only. For other uses, additional clearances may be required.\"\/>Donald Trump (Matt Rourke\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>US Central Command said the initiative would involve guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 aircraft and 15,000 service members.<\/p>\n<p>Ships and seafarers, many on oil and gas tankers and cargo ships, have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began. Crew members have described seeing intercepted drones and missiles explode over the waters as their vessels run low on drinking water, food and other supplies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are victims of circumstance,\u201d Mr Trump wrote, describing the effort as a humanitarian gesture \u201con behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also sounded a warning: \u201cIf, in any way, this Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s state-run IRNA news agency called Mr Trump\u2019s announcement part of his \u201cdelirium\u201d. Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission of Iran\u2019s parliament, said any interference in the strait would be seen as a ceasefire violation.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Trump spoke hours after Tehran said it was reviewing the US response to its latest proposal to end the war and made clear these are not nuclear negotiations. The fragile three-week ceasefire appears to be holding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has launched an effort to \u201cguide\u201d stranded ships from the Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz, as it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-467995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116516723704929391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}