While assuring reporters that the ceasefire agreement reached last month between the Trump administration and Iran is holding, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday said the American forces are acting “aggressively” in the Strait of Hormuz, where he said US Central Command has “established a powerful red, white, and blue dome” as a “direct gift from the US to the world.”
The metaphorical “dome” the US has placed over the key shipping route for oil and other goods has taken the form of what the Trump administration is calling Project Freedom, which launched Monday and involves the US guiding ships out of the strait, according to President Donald Trump. Iran effectively shut the waterway more than two months ago in retaliation for the unprovoked US-Israeli war on the country, and the US Navy has blocked ships from going to or from Iran in response.
Hegseth emphasized Tuesday that Project Freedom is “separate and distinct” from the military assault on Iran that began on February 28 with the stated aim of eliminating the country’s missile and nuclear capabilities.
“The ceasefire is not over,” said the secretary. “We expected there would be some churn, which happened, and we said we would defend and defend aggressively, and we absolutely have.”
He added that the US is “not looking for a fight.”
Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, told reporters that US warships shot down Iranian cruise missiles that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had fired at the vessels Navy ships were guiding out of the strait on Monday, and Army helicopter gunships sank six military speedboats from Iran.
As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander told Iran’s state-affiliated media that US forces actually attacked “two small boats carrying people on their way from Khasab on the coast of Oman to the coast of Iran on Monday” and killed five civilians, but did not hit any IRGC ships.
At his press conference with General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hegseth insisted that Iran is the “aggressor” even as he threatened the country with restarting “major combat operations” if Trump deems them “necessary.”
Project Freedom, said Hegseth, “is about free flow of commerce, all the things that happened before, and only Iran is contesting, so right now the ceasefire certainly holds, but we’re going to be watching very, very closely.”
One reporter, with the Epoch Times, asked whether the president plans to seek congressional approval if he decides it is necessary to restart “major combat operations.”
Days before the fighting in the strait, Trump notified Congress last Friday that hostilities with Iran had been terminated. The announcement came on the deadline set by the 1973 War Powers Act, which requires US presidents to end conflicts that have not been authorized by Congress no more than 60 days after notifying lawmakers of the hostilities.
Trump told Congress that the fighting has been effectively terminated since the US and Iran agreed to the ceasefire on April 7, a view that Hegseth pushed on Tuesday in response to the question about congressional authorization.
“Our view is… that ultimately with the ceasefire, the clock stops,” said Hegseth. “If it were to restart that would be the president’s decision. That option is always there and Iran knows that.”
NBC News senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen responded that he had “never heard” of Hegseth and Trump’s reasoning for not planning to seek congressional approval for more combat operations.
“Understand that what he is doing here is desperately trying to avoid the War Powers Act,” said Fred Wellman, a Democratic congressional candidate in Missouri. “They made up a new interpretation that says the 60-day clock is ‘paused’ for a ceasefire. Now they are lying and saying this is an all-new, shiny war and not the same one.”