U.S. Central Command refuted reports that the U.S. Navy escorted vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
The denial, communicated through a statement on its X account, reflects the sensitivity of the matter. A brief effort to escort vessels through the waterway was quickly walked back after protests from Iran and the Gulf countries.
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“CLAIM: Recent media reporting claims that the U.S. Navy has restarted escorting or assisting commercial vessels during transits through the Strait of Hormuz. FALSE,” CENTCOM’s X account posted.
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“TRUTH: Project Freedom has not resumed, and U.S. forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz,” the defense force wrote.
U.S. escort efforts through the strait, dubbed Project Freedom, sparked a spike in clashes with Iran, jeopardizing the fragile ceasefire and triggering new drone and missile strikes against the United Arab Emirates. President Donald Trump quickly backtracked, hinting at intense pressure from the Gulf States.
The U.S. Navy vessels traversing the strait came under heavy fire but emerged unharmed, instead inflicting heavy casualties against Iranian forces. Despite this, the effort was widely seen as a misstep.
Last week, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told the Senate Appropriations Committee that a resumption of efforts to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz was effectively impossible.
“There are many things we can continue doing to enhance the blockade, and but to actually start doing something where I’m providing escort services through a contested straight will, in my military opinion, exceed the capacity of the Navy to do that effectively,” he said.
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Caudle argued that the blockade was the most important mission so far and had been instrumental in getting to a favorable negotiating position.
“If we go try to do escort with that, we have looked into that,” the admiral said. “That’s a very challenging mission in that narrow strait when it’s contested, and so when you’re in a contested environment to de-mine the strait of Hormuz or to do escort duty — is not something that’s easy to do. So we’re going to have to get to a place that that strait is open with a generally accepted ceasefire before that can be turned on en masse.”
