Lyse Doucet

He was talking last night about the only thing stopping them from waving the white flag was their pride, but that they were completely depleted.

What was your sense of it?

Now your own colleagues in the BBC are reporting and have asked the White House for comment on this report from Axios which says that the White House believes it is close now to agreeing a memorandum of understanding with Iran.

Sky News quoting Pakistani sources confirming that the United States and Iran are near a peace deal.

So that makes more sense of Donald Trump's announcement overnight that Project Freedom is gone now.

He clearly felt that he was making progress elsewhere

release?

Lise, thank you so much.

Lise Doucette there, BBC's chief international correspondent on the developing situation between Iran and the United States.

Weekday mornings at 9.

Well, President Donald Trump announced that for humanitarian reasons, as he put it, he was launching what he called Operation Freedom, which would open up

the free flow of transport through that strategic strait of Hormuz.

It was unclear as to how it was going to operate.

And what we have seen in the last 24 hours is that

It seems that two U.S.

flag vessels were able to get through.

That, of course, is a very small percentage of what are said to be 2,000 vessels that have been backed up, waiting for weeks, stranded for weeks during this war.

But what has also happened is that both Iran and the United States say they have opened fire on each other.

Both are asserting control over this strategic waterway.

Iran warning that if the United States continues to move in the area, it will come under even greater fire.