Riyadh told the White House it would not let its Prince Sultan air base be used to launch Project Freedom, the Hormuz tanker escort operation Washington had presented as the successor to the bombing campaign known as Operation Epic Fury. The Guardian reported that this refusal was behind Donald Trump’s decision to shelve the plan only days after launching it.
NBC reported that Saudi Arabia held its position even after a personal call between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Trump. Riyadh has not denied the confrontation.
A reversal with no mention of Saudi Arabia
The turnaround surprised many. For two days the administration had built up the importance of the operation. Then on Tuesday Trump posted that it was paused for a short time by mutual agreement, because great progress had been made toward a deal with Iran, partly through China’s intervention. He said the pause would give time to see whether an agreement could be reached.
He said nothing about Saudi objections or the denial of airspace. His post also undercut a day of heavy messaging from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff. All three had said the operation would finally guarantee freedom of navigation for the hundreds of ships stranded in the strait. The US blockade of Iranian ports was to continue.
Why Riyadh said no
Saudi officials feared that Project Freedom lacked clear terms of engagement and could become a risky naval confrontation between Iran and the US. That would effectively end the ceasefire, which had been partly in force since 7 April. Iran had said explicitly that it would treat a US military escort of oil tankers, or attacks on Iranian shipping, as ceasefire breaches. The result would expose Gulf states to more attacks, with Tehran resuming drone and missile strikes on US bases and energy installations in the region.
The Guardian also pointed to a possible Houthi angle. Riyadh has worked behind the scenes to keep the group in Yemen out of the conflict, and a Houthi-driven closure of the Red Sea route would worsen the threat to world oil supplies. The Saudis had reached an agreement with Iran protecting their pipeline to Yanbu, which lets them export as much as 50% of their output via the Red Sea.
One Saudi diplomat said it had been obvious for a long time that the US had landed in a conflict it could neither escalate nor exit. The Guardian read the refusal as a late sign of Riyadh’s lack of confidence in Trump’s handling of the war. Saudi Arabia, it said, was often left looking like an aggrieved but powerless victim of a conflict it never advocated, and it was not impressed by the protection the US gave against Iranian attacks.
Strain with the UAE
The episode sharpens a split inside the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates, the biggest target of Iranian attacks, has been bolder than Saudi Arabia, and its tankers have often turned off their transponders to slip past the blockade. It has already left Opec and is considering leaving the Arab League. The Guardian said Riyadh’s move, which narrows Trump’s options for breaking the blockade, is likely to worsen Saudi-Emirati relations further.
The two states also disagree over Yemen, Somalia and Sudan, and Riyadh has been uneasy about the deepening UAE-Israel ties.
