Trump says ‘great progress’ made on US-Iran deal, pauses Project Freedom in Hormuz

US President Donald Trump announced that US operations to facilitate the movement of ships in the Strait of Hormuz will be paused due to “great progress” being made towards a peace deal with Iran in a post on Truth Social in the early morning hours on Wednesday.Project Freedom, the US operation to guide ships through the strait, will be temporarily halted due to “the fact that great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran,” Trump stated. The pause will allow for a short period of time to see whether or not an agreement can be finalized and signed, he added, and the US blockade on the Strait of Hormuz will remain active.Requests from Pakistan and other countries also played a role in the decision to order the pause, according to Trump. Trump announced Project Freedom in a Sunday post on Truth Social, and it was implemented on Monday. On Monday, the US military stated that it had destroyed six Iranian small boats in addition to intercepting Iranian missiles and drones as a part of Project Freedom. Iranian officials decry Project Freedom, deny attack on UAEAlso on Monday, Iranian officials warned that the project would constitute a violation of the ongoing US-Iran ceasefire.“Any American interference in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire,” Senior Iranian lawmaker Ibrahim Azizi asserted in a statement on X/Twitter.“The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf would not be managed by Trump's delusional posts,” Azizi continued.On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates, which has a coastline along the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, was the target of renewed Iranian missile and drone attacks, according to the UAE Defense Ministry.In a statement released later on Tuesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied launching the missiles and drones and accused the UAE of “collaboration with hostile parties” by hosting US military bases.Iran continued to claim that they were conducting “defense measures” against “America's mischief” and decried the UAE Defense Ministry's announcement as “inappropriate claims.”Tobias Siegel and Reuters contributed to this report.