Qeshm Island Explosions: Why Did the U.S. Strike Iran?

The United States has carried out limited strikes on Iranian targets on Qeshm Island, the largest island in the Persian Gulf and among Iran’s most heavily fortified positions on the strait, on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections. A U.S. official, speaking anonymously on November 2, described the attack as a “defensive measure for Iranians using surface to air missiles against U.S. assets,” and stressed that it did not mark a return to sustained strikes on Iran or the start of a new escalation. At least five explosions were reported in succession across the island that night, with further blasts reported at the mainland port of Bandar Lengeh, while neither the targets nor any casualties have been disclosed. The strike highlights how far the conflict remains from settled, with American forces still prepared to hit Iranian air defences threatening U.S. aircraft over the strait, where the U.S. Navy has blockaded Iran’s ports since July.

The strikes came only hours after President Donald Trump, in a Washington speech billed as his closing argument before the November 3 vote, played down the conflict, stating: “I don’t know if you even call it a war, because we haven’t been doing any fighting for months.” Asked whether he was considering strikes after the elections, he answered “no,” having for weeks kept open a threatened resumption of strikes. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force has meanwhile claimed to have shot down three American drones near the strait, among them what it described as the 55th MQ-9 Reaper it has brought down, and two MQM-170 reconnaissance drones downed south of Qeshm by electronic warfare, none of which the U.S. military has confirmed. The last publicly announced American strikes on Iranian territory came in early September, when U.S. Central Command said it had hit IRGC targets after attempted Iranian attacks on Gulf shipping and U.S. troops.

Qeshm lies off the port of Bandar Abbas along the northern edge of the Strait of Hormuz beside the shipping lanes out of the Gulf, and hosts a naval base and tunnel complexes the IRGC Navy calls “underground missile cities,” reportedly holding anti-ship missiles, fast attack craft and coastal defence systems. The island was hit on March 7, when a desalination plant was struck in an attack Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi blamed on the United States, stating that it had cut the water supply to 30 villages, a charge the U.S. Navy denied. The new strike follows a meeting at which Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, told military chiefs that the response to any threat from the United States or Israel should be immediate and without “geographic limits.”

Diplomacy has continued alongside the strikes, with Qatari mediators planning further meetings this week after two rounds of talks with Iranian officials the previous week, built around a framework under which Iran would stop attacking ships in the strait in exchange for the United States lifting its blockade. Vice President JD Vance said on November 2 that the two sides had “made some progress” towards an “off ramp to the war,” while noting that the president “retains kinetic options, he retains non-kinetic options,” and Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei said the tone from Washington had “completely changed.” Brent crude rose 0.5 percent to $105.25 a barrel in early Asian trading on November 3 as reports of the strike spread.