President Trump’s abrupt suspension of Project Freedom—a plan to facilitate commercial ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz—followed Saudi Arabia’s decision to block U.S. military access to its airspace and bases.
A U.S. official stated that the announcement initially angered Saudi leadership, prompting them to deny allowing “the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace.” A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not resolve the issue, leading the president to pause Project Freedom to restore access.
The White House confirmed regional allies were notified in advance. However, a Saudi source indicated GCC countries learned of the initiative half a day prior, with airspace opened and facilities made available without objection. This source emphasized that GCC nations had “broad support for the idea” because Project Freedom was intended as a limited humanitarian-security operation to relieve 22,000 sailors trapped around Hormuz.
Yet, Saudi officials were shocked by U.S. policy regarding potential retaliation if Iran attacked their infrastructure during operations. After multiple Iranian strikes targeting Emirati facilities with drones and ballistic missiles, the White House dismissed the incidents as “minor.” A former MI6 spy inside al-Qaeda, Aimen Dean, noted that GCC countries would have refused participation had they been told beforehand U.S. policy would avoid retaliation for Iranian attacks on their infrastructure. He stated: “The problem was not Project Freedom itself. The problem was discovering midway through the operation that the GCC countries were apparently expected to sit there quietly as punching bags while Washington played negotiation theatrics with Tehran.”
Dean added: “From the Gulf perspective, this stopped looking like strategy and started looking like desperate political vanity mixed with deadly wishful thinking.”
Iran has launched at least 10 attacks on U.S. forces since April 8, including strikes on Persian Gulf neighbors. With only around 11 ships transiting the Strait in the past 24 hours—less than 20% of pre-conflict levels—the crisis continues to escalate.