FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedin U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered remarks on May 5, 2026, at the White House Press Briefing Room in Washington, D.C., stressing that a key goal of “Project Freedom” is to free more than 20,000 seafarers that are trapped due to the conflict. According to Rubio, the initiative is designed to assist in the evacuation and protection of approximately 23,000 civilians from 87 countries who are currently stranded in and around the Persian Gulf amid an escalating crisis. He described the situation as a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz carried out by Iran, which he accused of endangering commercial shipping, restricting movement, and escalating regional instability. RelatedNews South Korea condemns attack on HMM vessel “in the strongest terms” JMIC: Security remains highly volatile across key regions var jnews_module_21372157_0_6a01df07803fa = {"header_icon":"","first_title":"Related","second_title":"News","url":"","header_type":"heading_8","header_background":"","header_secondary_background":"","header_text_color":"","header_line_color":"","header_accent_color":"","header_filter_category":"","header_filter_author":"","header_filter_tag":"","header_filter_cpt_post_tag":"","header_filter_cpt_tribe_events_cat":"","header_filter_cpt_web_story_category":"","header_filter_cpt_web_story_tag":"","header_filter_text":"All","sticky_post":false,"sticky_post_filter":false,"post_type":"post","content_type":"all","sponsor":false,"number_post":"2","post_offset":0,"unique_content":"unique1","include_post":"","included_only":false,"exclude_post":"21372157","include_category":"","exclude_category":"","include_author":"","include_tag":"4346,467,2647,131","exclude_tag":"","exclude_visited_post":false,"post_tag":"","tribe_events_cat":"","web_story_category":"","web_story_tag":"","sort_by":"latest","show_date":"","date_format":"default","date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","pagination_mode":"disable","pagination_nextprev_showtext":"","pagination_number_post":"2