US envoy to UN vows to defend shipping lanes

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said a vessel has reported being struck by an unknown projectile about 78 nautical miles north of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

All crew were reported safe, according to the advisory.

The incident comes as US president Donald Trump announced a plan beginning Monday to escort ships out of the Strait of Hormuz.

The war with the United States and Israel has exposed unusually open divisions within Iran’s clerical establishment, with hardline calls for escalation clashing with warnings over the cost of continued conflict.

Hardline cleric and MP Mahmoud Nabavian said Iran would escalate sharply if attacked again.

“If the United States launches another attack, Iran would strike residential areas housing kings and heads of state in Arab countries” south of the Persian Gulf, he said, while also urging President Donald Trump to “admit defeat.”

In contrast, liberal cleric and human-rights lawyer Mohsen Rohami argued that those opposing negotiations with Washington should be held accountable for the human and material toll of the war.

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US president Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran are going “very well” but declined to elaborate when asked by reporters after disembarking Air Force One on Sunday evening.

Trump’s brief comment comes as diplomatic exchanges between Washington and Tehran continue, with both sides reviewing proposals but key gaps still unresolved.

Hours before his comment, the US president announced a plan to help escort stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command said its forces will begin supporting “Project Freedom” on May 4 to help restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The mission, directed by Donald Trump, will support merchant vessels seeking to transit the strategic waterway, which carries roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil trade as well as significant volumes of fuel and fertilizer products.

“Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade,” said Brad Cooper.

CENTCOM said the effort will include guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned systems and around 15,000 service members.

US officials say Donald Trump did not announce a naval escort mission in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Wall Street Journal.

The officials described “Project Freedom”—earlier referred to as the Maritime Freedom Construct—as a coordination cell designed to guide US-flagged and other vessels through safe navigation lanes.

The initiative would identify routes free of threats such as mines, rather than involve direct military escort of ships through the waterway.

The clarification follows Trump’s earlier announcement, which had suggested a more active US role in securing passage through the strategic strait.