Sunday shows preview: Trump sends mixed signals on Iran as energy costs climb

A muddled picture about the state of the conflict with Iran emerged from the White House and President Trump this week, as a flurry of developments in the Gulf collided with mixed messages about the U.S. strategy for ending the 10-week conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.  

President Trump announced the launch of Project Freedom on Sunday, a U.S. military effort to assist vessels through the Strait of Hormuz aimed at restoring commercial shipping through the waterway — a strategic corridor through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes during peacetime.

By Monday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said that two U.S.-flagged merchant vessels had successfully navigated through the waterway. Several other ships reportedly also made it through with the aid of U.S. forces.

The development came as Iranian state media reported that a U.S. naval ship had been struck by two Iranian missiles. The strike came after a warning from the head of Iran’s central command, Maj. Gen. Ali Adollahi, who said that Tehran would attack “any foreign armed force” that tried to enter or approach the strait.

Centcom disputed the claim as false, and Trump told Fox News on Monday that Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if it interfered with the U.S. military effort.  

Tensions continued to escalate, with an exchange of fire testing the already fragile ceasefire between the two nations.

But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted on Tuesday that the truce was still in effect, despite U.S. forces destroying six small Iranian boats in what officials described as a defensive measure in response to Iranian attacks on U.S. warships and the United Arab Emirates.

Around the same time, Iranian officials accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire conditions.

“The new equation of the Strait of Hormuz is in the process of being solidified,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of Tehran’s lead negotiators, wrote in a post on X. “The security of shipping and energy transit has been jeopardized by the United States and its allies through the violation of the ceasefire and the imposition of a blockade; of course, their evil will diminish.”

That evening, Trump announced a pause in Operation Freedom, just 48 hours after it began, as reports of movement in the peace talks began circulating.

The next morning, sources told The Hill’s sister network, NewsNation, that the U.S. and Iran were closing in on an agreement to permanently end hostilities and establish a framework for future talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.

The one-page memorandum would see Iran commit to a 10 to 20-year moratorium on nuclear enrichment in exchange for the U.S. lifting its sanctions and releasing billions of frozen Iranian funds, according to Axios.

Both sides would also agree to gradually lift their blockades in the Strait of Hormuz over a 30-day period to eventually reinstate the free flow of shipping traffic, which has been largely deadlocked since the early days of the war.

The 14-point plan faced some criticism this week from prominent conservative media figures and pro-Israel advocates, who have otherwise been supportive of Trump’s posture toward the Islamic Republic. They raised concerns that ending the blockade could give up some of the U.S.’s leverage at a time when Tehran is facing its own economic pain.

Trump alluded to the conditions on Wednesday morning, saying that the U.S. military operation would end and the strait would reopen “assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to.”

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” he threatened on Truth Social.  

On Thursday, Centcom said that U.S. forces attacked Iranian military facilities after the country launched several missiles, drones and small boats on American guided-missile destroyers in the waterway. Trump described the strikes as a “love tap” and again maintained the ceasefire was still intact.   

The president also told reporters that there would be no........

© The Hill