Photo: Chris McGrath / Getty Images News / Getty Images
President Donald Trump announced that Project Freedom to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would get underway on Monday, and Iran is responding with its usual bluster, but without anything to back that up.
Iranian state media claimed that an American ship near the Strait of Hormuz had been hit by two missiles. The US denied the claim, which led to Iranian officials turning around and then claiming it was a warning shot.
In a post on Truth Social , the President wrote Sunday afternoon that the US has been repeatedly asked by nations that are not necessarily involved in the Middle East conflict if the US can free up ships that are caught in the threat of violence should they transit the narrow waterway.
The threat of attacks has caused insurance companies such as Lloyds of London to withdraw insurance on ships that transit the Strait, effectively closing the shipping lanes -- threats that originate with Iran.
President Trump calls Project Freedom a humanitarian operation that will attempt to move to safety zones outside the strait all the boats tied to nations that have not been part of the war over Iran.
So much oil and so many goods travel through the strait that it's imperative that the backlog of boats be freed immediately to avoid shocks to the world economy.