{"id":98965,"date":"2026-05-05T15:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98965\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:36:08","slug":"ceasefire-is-not-over-hegseth-says-as-u-s-acts-to-reopen-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98965\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ceasefire is not over,’ Hegseth says as U.S. acts to reopen Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The United States has launched a new military operation<\/a> to ensure commercial shipping vessels can safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, deploying scores of warships, fighter jets and drones to counter Iranian efforts that have threatened the narrow waterway that carries a fifth of the world\u2019s oil.<\/p>\n

At a news conference Tuesday at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the new initiative \u2014 dubbed \u201cProject Freedom\u201d \u2014 is a temporary and defensive operation meant to resume the flow of traffic through the international waterway as hostilities have continued in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not looking for a fight, but Iran cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway,\u201d Hegseth said, while calling Iran\u2019s tactics \u201cinternational extortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The operation comes nearly a month after the United States reached a fragile ceasefire deal with Iran, a truce that Hegseth said remains in effect even though Tehran has continued to attack U.S. forces and commercial vessels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ceasefire is not over,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that since the ceasefire took effect, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times, seized two container ships and attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times. All of these instances, he said, are \u201cbelow the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those attacks have left more than 1,550 vessels trapped in the Arabian Gulf, unable to transit, disrupting global trade and pushing energy markets toward crisis, with fuel prices climbing and shipping costs surging.<\/p>\n

The new U.S. mission was cast as separate from the broader military campaign<\/a> over Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons program. As negotiations to denuclearize Iran continue, Caine said commercial vessels wanting to cross the strait will now \u201csee, hear and frankly feel the U.S. combat power around them, on the sea, in the skies and on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two U.S. commercial vessels, escorted by Navy destroyers, have already moved through the Strait, Hegseth said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cThey said they control the strait, they do not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth called the operation a \u201cdirect gift from the United States to the world,\u201d aimed at resuming traffic through one of the world\u2019s most vital waterways.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo what remains of Iran\u2019s forces: if you attack American troops or innocent commercial shipping, you will face overwhelming and devastating American firepower,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cThe president has been very clear about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday evening local time, the UAE\u2019s defense ministry said in a statement on X that the country\u2019s defensive systems \u201care actively engaging with missiles and UAV threats and that \u201csounds heard across the across the country are the result of ongoing engaging operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s barrage marks the second consecutive day of attacks targeting the UAE since the U.S.-Iran ceasefire<\/a> took hold on April 8. On Monday, the UAE said it engaged a total of 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran.<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Nabih Bulos, in Beirut, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The United States has launched a new military operation to ensure commercial shipping vessels can safely pass through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[84,3065,34610,34611,711,23298,1368,102,34612,34,2928,1219,101,709,51,1142],"class_list":{"0":"post-98965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-ceasefire","10":"tag-commercial-shipping-vessel","11":"tag-defensive-operation","12":"tag-drone","13":"tag-effect","14":"tag-hegseth","15":"tag-hormuz","16":"tag-innocent-country","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-missile","19":"tag-strait","20":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","21":"tag-uae","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116522712183996113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}