Trump suspends "Freedom Project" in Hormuz. Rubio declares war over

US President Donald Trump said he would suspend the US military operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz two days after it was launched, while Tehran announced the creation of a new mechanism to manage the passage of ships through the strait.

"The Freedom Project will be suspended briefly to see if the agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.

"We mutually agreed to suspend the freedom project while the blockade continues to be in full force and effective," the US president added, explaining that "the agreement to suspend the freedom project came at the request of Pakistan and other countries," referring  to what he described as "the military success we have achieved and progress towards reaching a comprehensive agreement."

Rubio announces haltoffensive operations

Trump's stance came hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that "Operation Epic Fury is over, as the president informed Congress. We have finished this phase of it," he said, adding during a press conference at the White House that Washington is now in a "defensive" phase.

He stressed that the United States would not open fire on its own, but stressed that US forces carrying out such an operation would respond "with lethal effectiveness" if targeted.

Trump told the U.S. House and Senate presidents on Friday that the offensive actions on Iran were over, following pressure from Congress to push him to seek authorization to move forward with the conflict, which is in its third month.

In doing so, he confirmed his compliance with a law that stipulates that the president must obtain authorization from the legislature if troops are deployed for more than 60 days.

Rubio called on Tehran to come to the negotiating table and accept the terms, noting that US envoys Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner are continuing to reach a diplomatic solution.

He stressed that the solution must deal with any nuclear material that Iran still holds and is buried "somewhere deep."

U.S. Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Kean has said his forces are ready to resume large-scale combat operations against Iran if they receive orders, adding that "no adversary should interpret the current restraint as a lack of resolve."

Trump bows to the War Powers Act

Earlier this month, Trump said the deadline set out in the War Powers Act for the continuation of the war on Iran was "invalid," claiming that "hostilities are effectively over," despite the continued presence of U.S. troops in the region and the hint of a possible resumption of attacks.

"The hostilities that began on Feb. 28, 2026, are over," Trump wrote in his letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate's interim president, but the letter itself included references to the possibility of resuming military operations, reinforcing doubts that declaring the "end" of the war was an attempt to bypass the legal entitlements associated with congressional approval.

Politico noted that Trump said Thursday that previous U.S. presidents had not complied with the 60-day deadline stipulated in the War Powers Act, adding, "As you know, many presidents have exceeded that deadline," considering that "every other president has been of the opinion that this is completely unconstitutional."

Pentagon officials said U.S. forces remain on standby to resume attacks on Iran if peace talks collapse.

What is the War Powers Act?

 The War Powers Resolution is a 1973 U.S. federal legislation aimed at restricting the ability of the President of the United States to engage armed forces in foreign conflicts without explicit congressional approval, in an effort to rebalance the executive and legislative branches in decisions of war and peace.

The law was passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, after Congress saw that presidents had used their powers as commanders of the armed forces to expand military intervention without formal authorization, and the act came to restore Congress's constitutional role in declaring war, a role that had been effectively reversed during previous decades.

The law requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of the start of any military operation or deployment overseas, emphasizing that no combat operation can continue for more than 60 days without congressional authorization or a formal declaration of war, with the president an additional month to withdraw troops if Congress does not agree to continue the mission.

Since its passage, the law has faced objections from U.S. presidents who saw it as restricting their executive powers in the National Security Administration, and President Richard Nixon vetoed it before Congress overrode it and became effective, and subsequent presidents have circumvented the law by classifying military operations as "not acts of hostilities" or "limited strikes" that do not require a time limit.