IRGC says safe passage through Hormuz will be ensured after the US suspended the operation — Trump: “If Iran does not accept, the bombing begins”

Safe passage for merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz will be ensured as the American threats come to an end and with new procedures in place, the navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared on Wednesday, a day after the United States announced the suspension of the operation to help stranded ships pass through the strait, as Al Jazeera reports. In the statement published on the social network X, the Iranian naval forces did not specify what the new procedures were, but thanked the ship owners and captains who, according to it, have respected Iranian regulations while passing through the strait.

The move comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily halted the “Project Freedom” military operation to escort stranded ships outside the strait. Trump said on Tuesday that he was suspending the operation for a short period, citing “great progress” toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran, and added that the decision had come at the request of Pakistan, the mediator. The U.S. naval blockade of Hormuz, however, remains in force. On Wednesday, in a post on Truth Social, Trump said the war could end if “Iran agrees to give what has been agreed” — an assumption, according to him, perhaps a “very big” one. “If they do not accept, the bombing begins, and it will be, unfortunately, at a much greater level and intensity than before,” he wrote.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, who is mediating between Tehran and Washington, said he was “grateful” for Trump’s decision to suspend the operation, adding that the pause “will contribute greatly to advancing regional peace, stability and reconciliation during this sensitive period”. The spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran was reviewing the U.S. proposal and would convey its position to Pakistan, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported.

But the situation in the strait remains dangerous. The French shipping group CMA CGM announced on Wednesday that one of its ships, the “San Antonio”, had been attacked while passing through the Strait of Hormuz, leaving crew members wounded and damage to the vessel. According to the company, the incident happened a day earlier; the wounded crew members were evacuated and received medical care. The French government said France was not specifically the target of the attack. According to Al Jazeera, the American operation “Project Freedom” achieved no meaningful resumption of traffic through the strait, while it provoked a new wave of Iranian attacks on ships in the strait and on targets in neighbouring countries.

Iran began blockading the strait after the US and Israel started the war on 28 February, with Iranian forces attacking a number of ships, laying naval mines and imposing fees for safe passage through the narrow channel. On Tuesday, Tehran also created a new body, the “Persian Gulf Strait Authority”, to regulate and organise the passage of ships, whether military or commercial — a step which, according to Al Jazeera, aims to change the status of the strait forever. Meanwhile, the prolonged halt to traffic is eroding the economies of the Gulf states: according to Goldman Sachs bank, the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council are losing roughly $700 million a day from being unable to transport oil.