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A Dispute Over Opening Hormuz Drives a Wedge Into U.S.-Saudi Relations

Saudi Arabia blocked Trump’s first big effort to open the strategic waterway, triggering a widening diplomatic rift

DUBAI—More than 100 U.S. military aircraft were taking off from bases and warships across the Middle East as part of an effort to crack open the Strait of Hormuz this past spring when they hit a glitch: Saudi Arabia, whose bases and airspace were critical to the mission, was saying no.

The pushback forced the U.S. to abort Project Freedom, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter, ending the military operation to guarantee safe passage for ships that President Trump had launched hours earlier.

Incensed, the White House threatened to hold back delivery of interceptors that Saudi Arabia needs to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, if the kingdom didn’t reverse course, U.S. and Arab officials familiar with the discussions said. Saudi Arabia ultimately backed down, but U.S. officials said at the time that the damage wouldn’t easily be undone.

Now, the U.S. is considering reducing its military footprint in the kingdom, according to U.S. officials familiar with the planning process.

The U.S. threats, which haven’t been previously reported, marked the biggest rift in years in a relationship that has underpinned security arrangements in the Gulf for decades.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to the Gulf last week for meetings with senior officials in the region. He visited the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain, three of the countries hardest hit by Iran during the war, but didn’t travel to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials were displeased and interpreted Rubio’s decision not to visit Riyadh as a calculated snub, people familiar with the kingdom’s thinking said.

Trump administration officials denied that was the intention and said Rubio had positive conversations with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain. The U.S. and all GCC members released a joint statement after the meetings that reaffirmed their “strong commitment” to their partnership.

The week before, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman turned down an invitation to attend the Group of Seven summit in France, protesting the U.S. handling of the war, the people familiar with the kingdom’s thinking said. The leaders of the U.A.E., Qatar and Egypt attended the gathering. The crown prince said in a letter to the French hosts that he couldn’t attend because of prior commitments, Saudi media reported at the time.

Riyadh didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that Washington and Riyadh have a great relationship. “President Trump listens to a variety of opinions on any particular issue, and he takes seriously the input of our regional partners,” she said. “Ultimately, he makes all decisions based on what is best for the American people.”

The Pentagon declined to comment.

It isn’t clear how deeply the disagreements and slights might affect a relationship that has long been a cornerstone of U.S. security policy in the Middle East. Close U.S.-Saudi ties help assure the free flow of oil priced in dollars and balance the heavy U.S. commitment to Israel. The kingdom is a major customer for American arms and a source of investment capital, including for critical mineral supply chains, artificial intelligence and civil nuclear cooperation.

The U.S. military first secured basing rights in the kingdom in 1945 and expanded them during the wars with Iraq. During Trump’s first administration, the U.S. built up its presence at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base largely as a bulwark against Iran.

The relationship has come under strain before, in the post 9/11 era. The U.S. had to scale back and even end its presence at Saudi bases at times over the years because of political considerations and the domestic fallout from having foreign troops in the country that hosts Islam’s holiest shrines. The first Trump administration pulled Patriot missile defense systems out of Saudi Arabia in 2020 following a dispute over the kingdom’s oil output, saying they were no longer needed for defense.

The crown prince bet heavily on his relationship with Trump in the president’s second term. The strategy paid off with a White House visit last fall where Trump praised the de facto Saudi leader and waved away concerns about the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in a Saudi consulate, which had alienated the crown prince from the U.S., including many members of Congress.

But Saudi Arabia and the U.S. were never really on the same page over the war against Iran, dubbed Epic Fury by the Trump administration. The kingdom and other Gulf powers lobbied the administration for weeks early this year to find a diplomatic solution after the U.S. built up forces in the region and told its allies to be ready for a major attack.

Saudi officials told the White House that any attempt to topple the Iranian regime would close the Strait of Hormuz, rattle oil markets, and hurt the U.S. economy, as well as damage their and the region’s stability, the Arab officials said. The kingdom and other Gulf states said publicly they wouldn’t allow their bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran.

The U.S. started the war alongside Israel anyway, exacerbating Saudi concerns that its investment in the relationship wasn’t paying off in actual influence, according to the Arab officials. Iran responded by launching missile and drone attacks against Gulf population centers, energy infrastructure and airports in an effort to raise the economic and political costs of the conflict.

Despite their initial reluctance, the kingdom and other Gulf states quickly allowed the U.S. to use their bases and airspace for attacks. Some—including Saudi Arabia—eventually took a more active role, launching a number of strikes on targets that included Iranian drone and missile sites, U.S. officials and a Gulf official said. The kingdom hasn’t publicly acknowledged those strikes.

But Iran absorbed the punishing air campaign and rattled the Gulf by hitting important energy infrastructure like Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas project, the U.A.E.’s Fujairah oil hub and the Saudi petroleum complex at Ras Tanura. Its hard-line leadership dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps consolidated power and showed more appetite for risk throughout the war.

With Saudi officials fearing more Iranian attacks on its energy exports including from the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, where the kingdom had routed most of its oil, the crown prince shifted gears and started working to de-escalate tensions.

Saudi Arabia complained to the U.S. that U.A.E. attacks on Iran, which began in the early days of the war and continued through the day after the April ceasefire was announced, were raising the risk that regional energy facilities could come under fire from Iran, some of the people familiar with the matter said.

The Saudis wanted the U.S. to pressure the U.A.E. to stop the retaliatory attacks and join diplomatic efforts by regional countries, they said.

Saudi Arabia also pressed the U.S. to drop its blockade of Iran’s ports and return to the negotiating table, fearing Trump’s move to choke off Iranian commerce could lead its leadership to escalate and disrupt other important shipping routes, the Arab officials said.

Trump kept the blockade in place, and in early May, he caught Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, by surprise when he took to social media to announce Project Freedom, a military effort to shield oil tankers and other commercial ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Within hours of his post, American warships sailed into the Persian Gulf to help defend vessels. Jet fighters, attack helicopters and drones were launched to provide cover overhead. And undersea drones monitored the waterway.

The Saudis, whose bases and airspace were needed by the U.S., were alarmed by the operation. After consulting with his advisers, the Saudi crown prince told Trump that the effort was going to antagonize Iran and that it should be reconsidered, according to people familiar with the conversations.

As the U.S. guided two American vessels through the Strait, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones at commercial ships, the U.S. Navy and a U.A.E. oil transit hub, which was set ablaze. The fighting was the most serious escalation of the conflict since Trump declared a ceasefire in the war in April.

Saudi Arabia blocked access to its bases and airspace for Project Freedom after Trump played down the Iranian attacks, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

U.S. officials were stunned by the move that effectively shut down Project Freedom.

The about-face on basing also put the biggest strain on Saudi-American military relations in recent years and triggered a spate of tense phone calls between Trump and the Saudi crown prince.

The kingdom’s shift also frustrated Israel and Gulf neighbor U.A.E. Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed had already been upset when the crown prince refused to participate in coordinated military actions against Iran at the very start of the war, the Journal has reported.

The tensions worsened a growing divide between the two Gulf powers. The U.A.E. pulled out of OPEC in April, leaving the Saudi-led cartel of oil producers and pledging to double down on security ties with the U.S. and Israel.

Saudi Arabia has stuck to its guns. It reached out to Iran and has brought in troops from Pakistan, which has a new defense alliance with the kingdom and which was leading the efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

“When Iran and others tried to drag the Kingdom into the furnace of destruction, our leadership chose to endure the pains caused by a neighbor in order to protect the lives and property of its citizens,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, a senior Saudi royal who led the kingdom’s intelligence service for over two decades, wrote in the Saudi-owned Arab News in May.

Saudi Arabia lifted its basing and airspace restrictions after U.S. officials warned the kingdom it wouldn’t be on its priority list for receiving defensive weapons if it didn’t back down, the Arab officials said.

“The crown prince’s understanding with Iran reached via Pakistani coordination has already delivered results, which means that most Saudi infrastructure remains safe and not a target, allowing the kingdom to move away from the U.S. general policy,” said Umer Karim, an analyst of Saudi foreign policy and geopolitics with the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. “A bigger rift with the U.S. obviously will open a huge Pandora’s box and both sides will try to avoid it.”

The U.S. didn’t relaunch Project Freedom, which dedicated a huge number of military assets to ensuring the protection of ships. Instead, it quietly coordinated with ships to move them out of the Gulf in the dark of night and with their transponders switched off.

The U.S. is now considering reducing its presence in Saudi Arabia and focusing its forces in countries that were more supportive during the war, including Israel and Jordan, according to people familiar with the matter. The officials cautioned that the planning was in the early stages and that no decisions had been made.