President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that the United States could revive and broaden its naval operation in the Strait of Hormuz, rebranded as “Project Freedom Plus”, if Iran refuses to sign a proposed framework agreement aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and reopening one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.
Speaking outside the White House before departing for his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, Trump said the administration was waiting on a formal Iranian response to a one-page memorandum of understanding. The document, as Breitbart News reported, would establish a framework for broader negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief, and the reopening of commercial shipping through the strait.
“I’m getting a letter supposedly tonight, so we’ll see how that goes,” Trump said. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
Trump had announced Tuesday that Project Freedom, the U.S. military operation to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, would be temporarily paused at the request of Pakistan and other regional countries while negotiations continued. But the president made clear the broader U.S. naval blockade around Iranian ports would remain “in full force and effect.”
On Friday, he sharpened the stakes. “We’ll go a different route if everything doesn’t get signed up, buttoned up,” Trump told reporters. He then laid out what that route could look like.
“I think Project Freedom is good, but I think we have other ways of doing it also,” Trump said. “We may go back to Project Freedom if things don’t happen, but it’ll be Project Freedom Plus, meaning Project Freedom plus other things.”
What “other things” means remains undefined. But the context is hard to miss. Earlier in the week, Trump had warned bluntly: “If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”
The Washington Examiner reported that the administration appeared prepared to broaden military action, potentially including strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, if Tehran does not agree to a ceasefire deal.
The diplomatic maneuvering Friday unfolded against a backdrop of active military confrontation. U.S. Central Command announced that American forces had disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers, the M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda, after the vessels allegedly attempted to violate the ongoing U.S. naval blockade by reaching Iranian ports along the Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM also confirmed that a third tanker, the M/T Hasna, had been disabled earlier in the week after ignoring warnings.
“All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran,” CENTCOM stated.
CENTCOM released footage showing the disabling operations. A Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet launched from the USS George H.W. Bush fired precision munitions into the vessels’ smokestacks. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said American forces “remain committed to full enforcement of the blockade of vessels entering or leaving Iran.”
The tanker incidents came one day after what CENTCOM described as “unprovoked Iranian attacks” on three U.S. Navy destroyers, the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason, as they transited the Strait of Hormuz toward the Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM said U.S. forces “eliminated inbound threats” and conducted “self-defense strikes” on Iranian military facilities and naval infrastructure in response.
Trump downplayed the retaliatory strikes Thursday evening, calling them “just a love tap” while insisting the ceasefire, brokered last month through Pakistani mediation, remained in effect. On Truth Social, he elaborated: “There was no damage done to the three Destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers.” He added that the Iranian vessels “went to the bottom of the Sea, quickly and efficiently.”
As Fox News reported, Trump told reporters the U.S. response was decisive: “They trifled with us today. We blew them away.” He warned that Iran would face “a lot of pain” if it does not sign the new U.S. nuclear proposal, while also saying the talks were “going very well.”
Project Freedom launched Sunday after Trump announced that countries around the world had requested American assistance to help stranded commercial vessels safely transit the Strait of Hormuz. Under the operation, U.S. Central Command deployed more than 100 aircraft and approximately 15,000 service members.
The Trump administration privately warned Iran before launching the operation not to interfere, Newsmax reported. Iran reportedly attacked U.S. Navy vessels, commercial ships, and targets in the UAE even after the warning, though U.S. officials characterized those attacks as limited and below the threshold for major combat.
The operation was paused less than 48 hours after launch amid a dispute with Gulf allies and concerns about retaliation from Iran. But the New York Post reported that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had since reopened their bases and airspace to U.S. forces, potentially allowing Project Freedom to resume within days if Trump gives the order.
CENTCOM posted an image Friday of a U.S. Air Force F-16 operating over the Middle East and declared American forces “mission ready.” The message was not subtle.
The broader military standoff has drawn sharp political battles in Washington, where Senate Republicans have repeatedly defeated Democratic attempts to curtail Trump’s Iran military campaign.
Iranian officials spent Friday pushing back hard. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, one of Tehran’s lead negotiators, wrote on X:
“Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure. Whatever the causes, the outcome is the same: Iranians never bow to pressure.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei mocked Trump’s earlier warning that Tehran would see “one big glow” if the ceasefire collapsed and conflict resumed at full intensity.
“It is a grotesque absurdity that they claim to seek peace and prevent a nuclear crisis, yet their proposed solution is ‘one big glow.'”
Perhaps the most revealing statement came from Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader. Mokhber compared Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz to possessing an “atomic bomb” and said Friday that Tehran would not “forfeit the gains of this war.”
That framing, treating the strait itself as a strategic weapon, is precisely the kind of posture that makes a negotiated deal so difficult and a return to Project Freedom so likely. When one side views a chokepoint for global commerce as leverage equivalent to a nuclear arsenal, the incentives to stall are obvious.
Trump reiterated Thursday that any agreement would require Tehran to permanently abandon nuclear weapons ambitions and transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpile to the United States. “We’re not going to give them the right to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “Zero chance, and they know that.”
The proposed memorandum of understanding, widely described as a single page, would cover Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief, and the reopening of commercial shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz. It is framed as a starting point for broader negotiations, not a final deal.
Trump’s willingness to abruptly shift course on Iran diplomacy has been a recurring feature of this standoff. He pulled envoys from a Pakistan trip days earlier, signaling that Tehran’s internal divisions were complicating talks.
As Just The News noted, Trump’s pause on the ship-escort portion of Project Freedom was influenced by requests from Pakistan and other countries, U.S. military success against Iran, and reported progress toward a final agreement. But the broader blockade never lifted.
Late Friday night, Washington was still waiting for Tehran’s letter. The question is whether Iran’s leaders, who spent the day comparing shipping lanes to atomic weapons and vowing never to bow, are actually prepared to sign anything at all.
Trump has shown he is willing to act decisively when institutions stall. With more than 100 aircraft and 15,000 service members already deployed, the infrastructure for “Project Freedom Plus” is not a bluff, it is a logistics question.
The open questions are significant. What exactly would “Project Freedom Plus” entail beyond the original naval escort mission? Would it include strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure, as some reports suggest? And does Tehran have any real intention of signing a deal that requires surrendering its enriched uranium?
Iran’s track record on nuclear agreements is not encouraging. The regime pocketed billions in sanctions relief under the 2015 deal and continued advancing its nuclear program. Trump’s insistence on uranium transfer, not just enrichment caps, represents a fundamentally different demand, one that would require Tehran to give up something tangible rather than make promises it can later break.
Whether Iran’s letter arrived Friday night, and what it contained, remained unclear. But the administration’s posture left little room for ambiguity. The pause was a courtesy. The blockade stayed. And the next move belongs to Tehran.
A regime that treats a shipping lane like a nuclear weapon is telling you exactly what it values. The only question is whether Washington will keep listening, or start acting on what it already knows.
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