US-Iran war: Pakistan told the US that it could get a peace deal done between US and Iran if Washington followed through with this one thing. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that they stopped Project Freedom – announced by Donald Trump to rescue stranded ships at the Strait of Hormuz – “at the request of Pakistan”. 

Speaking to NBC News, Rubio said, “The reason why Project Freedom stopped is at the request of Pakistan, and they said, the Pakistani said, if you guys stop Project Freedom, we think we can get to a deal. And so in the interest of diplomacy – the president would prefer to have a diplomatic solution to this problem with Iran – we went ahead and agreed to stop it.” 

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Earlier this month, Trump said that Project Freedom would be stopped, due to the "great progress" towards a comprehensive agreement with Iran, while continuing the blockade of the strait. However, things did not go as planned, since. Only days after stopping Project Freedom, Trump said that the peace plan offered by Iran was “totally unacceptable”. 

"I have just read the response from Iran's so-called 'Representatives.' I don't like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!" he wrote on Truth Social. Iran had also rejected the US' peace proposal, saying it was tantamount to surrender.

In the latest development, Trump has said that the clock is ticking for Iran, and warned that Tehran must come forward with a better proposal or face harder strikes. 

Rubio, in the interview, said the US decided to stop escorting the ships out and was moving the destroyers out of the Persian Gulf but the Iranians attacked those vessels. 

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“We still prefer – the president strongly prefers – a diplomatic solution. We’re going to continue to try to work on one. We’ve given this regime in Iran every opportunity to reach one,” he said, adding that the problem they are facing is that the Iranians are internally divided, which is making it difficult to get counter proposals from them. 

Rubio said it was difficult to put a timeline on how long it will take to reach a diplomatic solution but the US wants to reach one. He said the Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway and doesn’t belong to Iran.

There are two ways to get Hormuz reopened, said Rubio in the interview. “It can happen one of two ways: the world and either Iran decides to do it, or the whole world decides to impose a cost on them for what they’re doing,” he said.

Published on: May 18, 2026 11:13 AM IST