Saudi Arabia reportedly refused to allow the US military to use its airspace and a key airbase for President Donald Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing the operation to be paused, NBC News claims, citing US officials.
The kingdom is said to have pulled support after Trump announced the operation on Sunday, stating that Western-flagged ships would be provided with US military escorts through the strait. Reportedly, however, neither Saudi Arabia nor any other Gulf states were informed of the plan ahead of time.
In response, Saudi Arabia informed Washington that US aircraft would not be permitted to operate from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace in support of the mission.
According to two US officials who spoke with NBC, a phone call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman failed to resolve the issue, forcing the president to pause Project Freedom just two days after it was announced in order to restore critical US military access to the region’s airspace.
Trump described Project Freedom as a humanitarian effort to break Iran’s blockade of the strategic waterway, which carries around one-fifth of the world’s oil. On Tuesday, however, the US president abruptly ordered a pause to the operation, citing “great progress” in Pakistani-mediated peace talks with Tehran.
The move appeared to have caught even Trump’s own officials off guard. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said just hours before the announcement that operation ‘Epic Fury’, the original operation, was over and that Project Freedom was now the primary focus. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had also been touting the initiative, claiming that hundreds of ships were lining up to pass through the strait.
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, mocked Trump online, saying, “Operation Trust Me Bro failed” and that the US is back to spreading falsehoods about ongoing talks.