Trump Pauses 'Project Freedom,' Cites 'Great Progress' in Iran Talks — US and Iran Moving Toward Framework Memo to End War and Reopen Strait of Hormuz

On May 6, 2026, in a significant diplomatic reversal from the prior 48 hours of maritime confrontation, President Trump announced that the United States would temporarily pause 'Project Freedom' — the military operation to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz launched on May 4 — stating that 'great progress' was being made in peace talks with Iran. CNN's live updates reported that the US and Iran were 'moving toward a memo aimed at ending the war.' The proposed framework under development would: (1) declare an end to the active state of war between the US and Iran; (2) trigger a 30-day transition period; (3) simultaneously address the Strait of Hormuz re-opening, the lifting of the US naval blockade, unfreezing of Iranian assets, and the timeline for nuclear talks. Al Jazeera published an analytical piece titled 'Has the US accepted Iran's demand to settle Hormuz first, nuclear later?' — framing the development as a potential US concession on the sequencing dispute that had blocked all prior rounds of talks since the Islamabad rounds in April. Iran's Foreign Ministry was reported to be reviewing the US reply to Tehran's latest proposal. The pause in Project Freedom is the most significant diplomatic signal since the conflict began: if sustained, it would represent a partial Iranian victory on the core sequencing question and suggest the framework memo could be the basis for a durable agreement. Pakistan's back-channel mediation role throughout the Project Freedom confrontation is credited with keeping communication lines open. The Lebanon track — which Iran has conditioned on any Hormuz agreement — remains unresolved; the three-week Lebanon ceasefire extension runs nominally to approximately May 14, and any US-Iran framework would need to address Lebanon's status to be comprehensive. The competing Ukraine-Russia ceasefire proposals (Ukraine: starting midnight May 6; Russia: May 8–9 Victory Day) add further complexity to the global diplomatic landscape as multiple peace processes reach critical junctures simultaneously.