Pete Hegseth said the Iran ceasefire remains in effect after a Strait of Hormuz exchange tied to a U.S. commercial shipping escort mission.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the fragile ceasefire with Iran remains in effect despite a new exchange of fire in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian vessels fired on U.S. ships escorting commercial traffic and U.S. forces struck Iranian small boats.
Speaking at the Pentagon, Hegseth framed the confrontation as part of Project Freedom, a U.S. effort to guide commercial vessels through the strait, rather than a return to broader combat with Iran. “The ceasefire is not over,” he told reporters.
The distinction matters because the Strait of Hormuz is a critical energy chokepoint that normally carries around 20% of the world’s oil. The waterway has been largely closed since the war began in late February, leaving commercial ships stranded in the Persian Gulf and raising the stakes for any confrontation involving U.S. forces.
Hegseth called Project Freedom a separate operation from Operation Epic Fury and described it as a temporary solution. He said the Pentagon expected “some churn at the beginning” of the escort mission and would defend U.S. forces and the vessels they are protecting.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran has attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times since the ceasefire was announced in early April. He also said Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships, but that the incidents remain below the threshold for restarting major combat operations.
Caine said roughly 15,000 American service members are involved in the Hormuz mission, including guided missile destroyers, other warships, attack aircraft and unmanned aircraft. U.S. Central Command said two U.S.-flagged commercial vessels moved through the strait Monday as part of Project Freedom.
Accounts of the U.S. response differed. U.S. Central Command said American forces destroyed six Iranian boats that had attempted to interfere with commercial vessels; President Donald Trump later said the number was seven. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency rejected the U.S. account and said none of Iran’s fast boats were destroyed.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday’s violence showed there is no military solution to the war and warned the U.S. and its regional partners against being pulled back into conflict. He also said talks between Washington and Tehran were making progress, while Trump said over the weekend that Iran’s latest peace proposal likely would not be acceptable.
The immediate question is whether further incidents around the strait remain contained within the escort mission or begin to erode the ceasefire that both sides still describe as formally in place.
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