Unconfirmed report that the suspension of "Operation Freedom", after 24 hours of activity was related to... MBS being less than impressed with the unilateral action by Agent Orange, which was apparently considered as destabilising to KSA. MBS's response was to rescind US use of KSA military bases, and KSA airspace. It has the ring of some truth, which in itself is a bit of a novelty. It appears that unilateral action that allies are not given forewarning or any say in the matter may well help the US reduce its costs of being based outside of US territory. Such an outcome is not a move towards a safer world, the question is, where on earth are the adults?
It seems that Saudi Arabia are not alone in rejecting the use of bases and airspace by the US....it goes back as far as the start of all this at the end of February. UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar all said no and that it included refuelling and recovery too.
This dated April 2, 2026 -
Gulf states reject use of airspace for U.S. attacks on Iran (Doha News)
Without the use of bases and airspace it was going to be very hard to maintain the Project Freedom....and once again as per this article from yNet Global today, the Gulf States did not know about Project Freedom until after it had started, they were caught by surprise (where have we heard that before in regard to the Iran conflict)
Project Freedom halted after Saudi Arabia suspended US use of its military bases, airspace (yNet - May 7, 2026)
According to the officials, Trump surprised Gulf allies when
he announced Project Freedom on his Truth Social platform, angering the Saudi leadership. In response, Saudi Arabia informed the United States that it would not allow the U.S. military to operate aircraft from Prince Sultan Air Base, southeast of Riyadh, or cross Saudi airspace to support the operation.
A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not resolve the crisis, the two U.S. officials said, forcing the president to halt the project in order to restore the U.S. military’s access to vital airspace. Other close Gulf allies also were surprised by the move, with Trump speaking to Qatar’s leaders only after the effort was already underway.