Posted on 05/06/2026 5:46:47 PM PDT by McGruff
President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after a key Gulf ally suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, according to two U.S. officials.
Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom” on social media Sunday afternoon, the officials said, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort, the officials said.
A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not resolve the issue, the two U.S. officials said, forcing the president to pause Project Freedom in order to restore U.S. military access to the critical airspace.
Other close Gulf allies were also caught off guard; the president spoke with leaders in Qatar after the effort had already begun.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
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Well, if NBC says so...
Trump seems to change his mind every hour on the hour.
Die hard Trumpers claim its because of conditions that change every hour.
One thing however doesn’t seem to change. And that is the absolute resolute single mindedness of the IRGC.
One thing however doesn’t seem to change. And that is the absolute resolute single mindedness of the IRGC.a
Ya gotta pedal faster, buddy.....
Yeah, cowering and whimpering under the resolute desk. Right.....
More than anything else, the aggregate reporting up to this point demonstrates that our military (like it or not) is currenlty incapable of imposing America's will upon the Iranian government (at least, not without a level of troop buildup that would be tantamount to political suicide), because otherwise, our strategy wouldn't be altered on a whim based on the immediate complaints of our nominal allies (be it Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar, the UAE, or otherwise).
not just NBC- five writers from NBC....
Why does Saudi Arabia NOT want the Straight of Hormuz to re-open?
LOL- remember Baghdad Bob??
FR has RINO_ResponsibilityII
Even more confusion is that who exactly is the Trump Administration talking to from Iran? The usual suspects are all basically denying there is any potential agreement. This all looks like market manipulation to me. The only way out of this mess is to bomb Iran into oblivion. That is the only exit strategy that works. The rest is utter Barbra Streisand.
If you ever get an answer, we'd love to hear it.
Have you seen the president do anything that would suggest he had a Plan B?
We're past that point; it required no small amount of salesmanship, at home and abroad. Trump didn't do his homework for that option.
He should declare victory and send everyone back home.
Why would countries ask? S.a. and it’s surrounding countries are allies of ours - especially after announcing a few trillion dollars investment over a decade.
With the Iranian attacks they’ll need to rebuild themselves first. Trump is not only helping out an ally but also understands that without those countries being healthy we don’t get that money.
So what are they mad about? We help them clear out their inventory !
I’m not buying this. I believe Operation Freedom was cancelled because the first run of those ships exposed problems that we didn’t know about before. It would make sense to test run and then back off if problems arise.
This seems like garbage to me
The Saudi dictatorship is dangerous for America and after we hopefully help Iran get a civilized government, we need to focus on helping Saudi and Turkey do likewise
Asked whether the announcement of Project Freedom caught the Saudi leaders by surprise, the Saudi source said: “The problem with that premise is that things are happening quickly in real time.” The source said Saudi Arabia was “very supportive of the diplomatic efforts” by Pakistan to broker a deal between Iran and the U.S. to end the war.
Maybe they see our policy as getting very wobbly, so they realize that they will have to continue living across the Gulf from the Islamic Republic government.
Don’t know, however the Saudis can ship their oil from their other coast driving the prices up, they won’t need the Straight. Or Iran.
Well the article hints the Sauds feel the US Naval escorts might jeopardize a negotiated settlement. Then again Occam's Razor might suggest the Sauds are getting filthy rich from $100+ oil price being generated by the Straits being blocked .
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