{"id":125365,"date":"2026-05-06T12:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=125365"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:11:13","slug":"trump-pauses-effort-to-escort-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz-citing-deal-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)-  US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would briefly pause an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1997230\">operation\u00a0<\/a>to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing \u201cgreat progress\u201d toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had outlined the effort that began on Monday to escort stranded tankers out of the Gulf. The strait has been virtually shut since the conflict began, blocking some 20 per cent of world oil supplies and igniting a global energy crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBased on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was no immediate reaction from Tehran, where it was early on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after Trump\u2019s post, US crude oil futures fell $2.30 and broke below $100 per barrel, a much-watched threshold since the conflict sent energy prices soaring two months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment on what progress had been made, or how long the pause would last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rubio and other senior administration officials said earlier on Tuesday that Iran could not be allowed to control traffic through the strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran has effectively sealed off the strait since the US-Israeli campaign began at the end of February. The US has countered by blockading Iranian ports and mounting escorted transits for commercial vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US military escorts over the last day and a half \u2014 dubbed \u201cProject Freedom\u201d by Trump \u2014 drew Iranian attacks, threatening an already fragile ceasefire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards navy warned of a \u201cfirm response\u201d if ships deviated from its approved route through the strait, as the country\u2019s chief negotiator said Tehran \u201chad not even started yet,\u201d following a spate of attacks in the crucial trade route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1997967\/trump-pauses-effort-to-escort-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz-citing-deal-progress#rubio-says-main-operation-is-over\"><\/a>Rubio says main operation is over<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Rubio told reporters at the White House that the US had achieved its objectives in its military campaign, which was launched on February 28 alongside Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOperation Epic Fury is concluded,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cWe\u2019re not cheering for an additional situation to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is not an offensive operation; this is a defensive operation,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cAnd what that means is very simple \u2014 there\u2019s no shooting unless we\u2019re shot at first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rubio said the United States has \u201cachieved the objectives\u201d of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese guys are facing, they are facing real, catastrophic destruction to their economy,\u201d he said, while adding that Trump still preferred a negotiated deal with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of Trump\u2019s central objectives in launching military strikes against Iran was to ensure Tehran does not develop a nuclear weapon, something Tehran has denied seeking. However, Iran has not handed over more than 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier on Tuesday that the US had successfully secured a path through the waterway and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through. The four-week-old truce with Iran was not over, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRight now the ceasefire certainly holds, but we\u2019re going to be watching very, very closely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iranian attacks against US forces fell \u201cbelow the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked what Iran would need to do to violate the ceasefire, Trump said: \u201cThey know what not to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would briefly pause an\u00a0operation\u00a0to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing \u201cgreat progress\u201d toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran. Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had outlined the effort that began on Monday to escort stranded tankers out of the Gulf. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON(National Times)- US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would briefly pause an\u00a0operation\u00a0to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing \u201cgreat progress\u201d toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran. Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had outlined the effort that began on Monday to escort stranded tankers out of the Gulf. [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-06T07:11:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/\",\"name\":\"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-06T07:11:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress - Nation","og_description":"WASHINGTON(National Times)- US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would briefly pause an\u00a0operation\u00a0to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing \u201cgreat progress\u201d toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran. Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had outlined the effort that began on Monday to escort stranded tankers out of the Gulf. [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/","og_site_name":"Nation","article_published_time":"2026-05-06T07:11:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":670,"height":370,"url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"humza Jahangir","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"humza Jahangir","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/","name":"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress - Nation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png","datePublished":"2026-05-06T07:11:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-2.png","width":670,"height":370},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125365\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trump pauses effort to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz, citing deal progress"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/","name":"Nation","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16","name":"humza Jahangir","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"humza Jahangir"},"url":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125367,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125365\/revisions\/125367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}