{"id":25990,"date":"2026-05-08T03:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/25990\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:05:10","slug":"trump-reversed-hormuz-plan-after-saudis-denied-airspace-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/25990\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Reversed Hormuz Plan After Saudis Denied Airspace Access"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2019s announcement on Sunday that the U.S. military would escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz angered Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who denied U.S. access to Saudi airspace and American bases in the country, according to a person briefed by Saudi officials and a U.S. military official.<\/p>\n

Prince Mohammed\u2019s action stunned U.S. officials and forced Mr. Trump to abandon his plan, according to a U.S. military official familiar with the sequence of events. The Saudis have since lifted the restrictions on the bases and overflights, but still have not agreed to permit the use of its territory in support of \u201cProject Freedom,\u201d as Mr. Trump named the naval operation, the U.S. official added.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump halted the tanker escort operation on Tuesday, after a flurry of phone calls between Washington and Saudi Arabia, including a call between Mr. Trump and Prince Mohammed. By that evening, Mr. Trump had announced that he had \u201cpaused\u201d the operation after less than 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump said he was reacting to new \u201cprogress\u201d toward a peace agreement with Tehran, although no evidence of a dramatic breakthrough has emerged.<\/p>\n

Even if the U.S. disagreement with Riyadh over tanker escorts is resolved, the initial Saudi refusal of support suggests that Mr. Trump\u2019s unpredictable and whipsawing approach to Iran has strained ties with one of his closest allies. As recently as mid-March, the de facto Saudi leader was pressing Mr. Trump<\/a> to continue his bombing campaign against Iran with the goal of bringing down its clerical regime and ridding the kingdom of a longtime adversary, according to people briefed by U.S. officials on the conversations. Saudi officials dispute their accounts.<\/p>\n

Prince Mohammed\u2019s calculus has since shifted. Mr. Trump instead agreed to an April cease-fire deal with Iran\u2019s leaders, and Prince Mohammed is now trying to help end the conflict by supporting peace talks through Saudi Arabia\u2019s ally, Pakistan. Iranian officials said on Thursday that Tehran and the United States were discussing a one-page proposal<\/a> to open the Strait of Hormuz and end hostilities \u2014 which flared up again on Thursday \u2014 for 30 days while they search for a comprehensive deal that would include matters like Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

The person briefed by Saudi officials confirmed that the kingdom had denied U.S. permission to fly over Saudi Arabia for the tanker mission, which they did not think had been well studied. Saudi officials also feared it would have led to an escalation with Iran, according to the person.<\/p>\n

Signs of a rift between Mr. Trump and Prince Mohammed could embolden Tehran as it jockeys for leverage in on-again, off-again negotiations with the United States amid clear signs that Mr. Trump is eager for a deal.<\/p>\n

The Saudi government\u2019s Center for International Communication, which handles queries from journalists, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Saudi Embassy in Washington.<\/p>\n

The friction emerged after Mr. Trump declared on Sunday via his Truth Social account that the U.S. military would begin guiding commercial ships through the narrow waterway between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Most maritime traffic through the strait has been halted since Iran began attacking tankers in response to the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign that began in February.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump initially depicted the operation as a \u201chumanitarian\u201d mission intended to free ships and crews who had been stranded in the strait for weeks or months, although his rhetoric grew more bellicose after the announcement. On Monday, Mr. Trump warned that he might wipe Iran \u201coff the face of the earth\u201d if it attacked American vessels in the strait.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Saudi officials notified U.S. counterparts that they could not use their country\u2019s territory or airspace for the operation, according to a U.S. military official. That rendered the plan unfeasible: U.S. naval escorts through the strait would require substantial air support for protection, including from fighter jets and attack helicopters.<\/p>\n

In addition to Mr. Trump\u2019s call with Prince Mohammed on Tuesday, an official said, Marco Rubio, the national security adviser and secretary of state, spoke to his Saudi counterpart. Steve Witkoff, a special U.S. envoy, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump\u2019s son-in-law, also spoke to the Saudi leadership that day. Mr. Trump spoke again to Prince Mohammed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Three people who speak often to Saudi officials said the episode shows growing frustration in Riyadh with Mr. Trump\u2019s shoot-from-the-hip management of his clash with Iran. Mr. Trump has left his strategic goals unclear and his tactics subject to sudden change, often catching U.S. allies by surprise.<\/p>\n

In his early years, Prince Mohammed pursued a hawkish approach to Iran, which included a disastrous bombing campaign in Yemen launched to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels. But in recent years he has prioritized diplomacy over military action, and in 2023 Saudi Arabia restored diplomatic relations with Iran after decades of deep hostility.<\/p>\n

The shift reflects Prince Mohammed\u2019s view that regional stability is crucial for his broader economic ambitions, which involve turning Saudi Arabia into a global hub for business and tourism, Saudi officials and analysts say.<\/p>\n

After Mr. Trump went to war against Iran, Prince Mohammed\u2019s main interest was in seeing a decisive victory against Iran\u2019s regime. Despite the easing of tensions in 2023, Saudi Arabia still considers the country a threat to its security.<\/p>\n

Now that it has become clear that the war is not likely to bring regime change, the crown prince is eager to bring the conflict to an end. Hoping to speed an agreement between the two sides, Saudi Arabia\u2019s foreign minister has been speaking to his Iranian counterpart regularly, according to one of the people in touch with Saudi officials.<\/p>\n

But the kingdom remains at risk. Iran has shown a willingness to attack energy facilities and other critical infrastructure across the region.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has faced fewer and less damaging attacks than other Gulf countries, and has been able to reroute the bulk of its oil exports through an overland pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. That also means that the kingdom has more to lose from an unchecked escalation.<\/p>\n

Edward Wong contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump\u2019s announcement on Sunday that the U.S. military would escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz angered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6238,8,19,13396,9,12566,951,6242,282,7,1071,3745,6237],"class_list":{"0":"post-25990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-donald-j","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-mohammed-bin-salman-1985","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-peace-process","14":"tag-saudi-arabia","15":"tag-ships-and-shipping","16":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-united-states-defense-and-military-forces","20":"tag-united-states-international-relations"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116536745794453593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}