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Posted on 05/07/2026 7:18:09 AM PDT by Eleutheria5
Fresh questions are being raised over why US President Donald Trump abruptly paused “Project Freedom,” the naval mission launched to secure commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. According to reports, Saudi Arabia refused to allow US military aircraft involved in the operation to use its airspace or bases, forcing Washington to halt the mission days after it began. The developments come as the US claims progress in talks with Iran over a possible deal. However, Tehran has pushed back against reports of a breakthrough, with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf mocking US media coverage of the negotiations as 'Operation Fauxios.'
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Okay so it might be true so what?
I haven’t seen any report that analyzes why Saudi Arabia made this decision. Other reports said they would not support the particular operation but that they reopened our use of their airspace for other purposes.
Pick-up, pick-up and leave.
Saudi Arabia is about to understand the betray Trump curse.
Only thing I can think of is they’re profiting from having the Straight’s oil flow cut off.
Too bad we can’t blockade the whole ME.
They want the bad guy, they need the bad guy!
So, SA is assisting Iran. That makes them an enemy. So, we don’t need their airspace. Cut ties with them and get back to business.
The 9/11 Saudis are behaving like 9/11 Saudis. They have concluded that the mullah regime will survive and that they or the US cannot defend them from Iran’s drones. They are cutting a deal for themselves as they always have done.
The Kuwaitis yanked their bases from the escort operation too.
Should have let Saddam keep it in 1991.
It s classic narrative building. NBC used anonymous sources, runs the story, then other media outlets pick it up saying “according to NBC”. Once you see this propaganda pattern you realize how common it is, MSM does it all the time.
Having spoken to a senior Saudi official about the NBC article regarding Project Freedom, I honestly think the article completely misunderstood what actually happened because it was written almost entirely from a US perspective rather than from a GCC perspective.
First of all,…— Aimen Dean (@AimenDean) May 7, 2026
However, Tehran has pushed back against reports of a breakthrough, with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf mocking US media coverage of the negotiations as ‘Operation Fauxios.’
Gee, I’m shocked! Now, can we start bombing without using Saudi Airspace?
DON'T ARM MUSLIMS!
Honestly, we don’t need their “f”ing air space as we have soon to be 3 carriers in the region and the E-2 Hawkeye can handle command and control. The F/A-18 and F-35C can handle anything that the Iranians might want to send up. I’m glad that Trump has warriors at the DOS calling the shots now and not the mentally confused in dresses.
“The Kuwaitis yanked their bases from the escort operation too.
Should have let Saddam keep it in 1991.”
In hindsight we should have never deposed Sunni Saddam. He was a bulwark against Iranian Shiite irridentism. Once Saddam was gone, Iran Twelvers took their enhanced oil revenues, started to arm and fund its proxy warriors in Gaza, Hezbollah, in Iraq, the Houthis too. The Ayatollahs went on a mega-Twelver fanatics ego trip. That they were destined to lord over the Middle East.
Sounds like having aircraft carriers is a good idea after all!
Nope. Facts:
Aimen Dean
@AimenDean
Having spoken to a senior Saudi official about the NBC article regarding Project Freedom, I honestly think the article completely misunderstood what actually happened because it was written almost entirely from a US perspective rather than from a GCC perspective.
First of all, contrary to the impression being created, the GCC were NOT blindsided by Project Freedom.
They knew about it beforehand. Roughly half a day before. The airspace was opened. The facilities were available. Nobody objected. There was broad support for the idea because, at least publicly, Project Freedom was supposed to be a limited humanitarian-security operation aimed at relieving the 22,000 sailors trapped around Hormuz and allowing shipping lanes to breathe again.
Nobody in the GCC had a problem with that.
But here is the issue .. and this is the part the NBC article completely misses.
If you are asking GCC countries to participate in such an operation, then you need to be upfront about the rules of engagement from day one!
You cannot say: “Please open your skies and bases, expose your energy infrastructure”
…only for everyone to discover afterwards that the actual American policy was apparently:
“Oh by the way, if Iran attacks you with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in several waves, we still won’t retaliate because Donald Trump is busy chasing The Deal.”
And this is exactly what shocked the Saudis. Not the Iranian attack itself.
The UAE/GCC expected retaliation.. This is Iran. Nobody in the Gulf is naïve about that anymore.
The shock came from the American reaction afterwards.
You had attacks against Emirati infrastructure. Fujairah was targeted. Multiple waves involving drones, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles.
And Washington’s response was basically: “Meh. Minor incident. Let’s not escalate.”
Minor incident?!
For the GCC that was madness.
Because what Riyadh, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi suddenly realized was that Trump’s obsession with preserving “The Deal” had apparently reached the point where Gulf energy infrastructure was now considered acceptable collateral damage in the pursuit of his precious negotiations.
Everything became: The deal. The deal. The beautiful deal. The greatest deal. The mother of all deals.
The ultimate “Art of the deal”
Or perhaps, more accurately: The ultimate fart of the deal.
Because from the Gulf perspective, this stopped looking like strategy and started looking like desperate political vanity mixed with deadly wishful thinking.
Had the GCC been told beforehand: “Listen, whatever Iran does to you during Project Freedom, America will not retaliate because we do not want to endanger negotiations…”
…they would have almost certainly refused participation from the start.
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. So the Saudis and Kuwaitis pulled plug!
Because the GCC know something US usually forgets:
Iran plays the long game.
You can freeze enrichment. Pause enrichment. Delay enrichment. Sign ten agreements. Twenty agreements. Forty agreements.
But if the infrastructure remains… If the centrifuges remain… If the IRGC remains… If the proxy network remains…
then eventually the game resumes.
There will be another distraction. Another pandemic. Another financial crisis. Another war somewhere else. Another paralysis in Washington.
And while the world is distracted, enrichment quietly resumes again.
Ironically, much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile expanded during the pandemic years precisely because global attention was elsewhere.
Judging by the reaction to the UAE attacks, the Saudis and Kuwaitis concluded that Trump’s version of deterrence had become:
“Please absorb the missiles quietly because I’m trying to write the sequel to “The Fart of the Deal.”
2:06 AM · May 7, 2026
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494.6K
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https://x.com/aimendean/status/2052314085602292182
“...Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf mocking US media coverage of the negotiations...” Lucy/football...........
Actually we should have taken his generals up on the offer to remove him. They offered to do that right at the end but that would have meant leaving a semi-Ba’thist regime in power. By then the Paul Breamers and others had gotten starry eyed and convinced themselves this was May 1945. The Iraqis were Germans and we had to de-Ba’ath Iraqi like a Germany was de-Nazied.
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