Why Is Qeshm Island Important? Where It Is and What Iran Keeps There

Qeshm lies off Iran’s southern coast in Hormozgan province, about 22 kilometers (14 miles) south of the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main naval and commercial port on the strait. A narrow, shallow channel called the Khuran Strait, also known as the Clarence Strait, separates it from the mainland.

The island stretches about 135 kilometers from east to west, roughly parallel to the coast, and its eastern tip points into the narrows of the strait. Smaller Iranian islands sit around it: Hormuz to the northeast, Larak to the east and Hengam just off its southern shore. Across the water to the south lies Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, the other side of the strait’s narrowest point. Our explainer on how wide the Strait of Hormuz is sets out the distances between them.

Qeshm covers roughly 1,450 to 1,500 square kilometers, depending on how the tidal flats are counted, which makes it bigger than Bahrain. It is about 135 kilometers long and up to about 40 kilometers wide.

Iran’s 2016 census counted 148,993 people in Qeshm County, which takes in the main island and a few small islands nearby, up from 117,774 in 2011. Qeshm town, on the island’s eastern end, is the largest settlement. Fishing, trade and the building of wooden lenj boats have long been the island’s main work, with tourism added in recent decades.

The island is still not linked to the mainland by road. Iran broke ground in March 2011 on a road and rail bridge, about 3.4 kilometers long, between the port of Laft on Qeshm and Bandar Pol on the mainland, but the project stalled and ferries remain the link.

Qeshm is Iran’s most important platform for threatening shipping in the strait. From its southern and eastern coasts, coastal missile batteries, drones and fast attack boats can reach both shipping lanes at short range, and the island’s length gives Iran’s forces many places to hide and launch from.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, which runs Iran’s war at sea in the Gulf, keeps a naval base on the island. Since January 2021 the Guards have shown off underground bases along the Hormozgan coast, tunnels holding anti-ship missiles, drones, and in some footage boats and naval mines, which they call “missile cities.” They have not said which of these tunnels are on Qeshm, and outside analysts disagree on how many there are. The island is widely reported to hold several of them, which is why U.S. strikes keep returning to it.

The island also supports the Guards’ mining and boat operations in the strait, covered in our explainer on how many naval mines Iran has. Holding Qeshm, together with Larak, Hormuz and Hengam, lets Iran watch every ship that passes and tell ships which routes they may use, as it has done since the war began.

Yes, at least four times, by Iran’s count and Washington’s. The forces based on the island are the reason.

On March 7, a week into the war, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, accused the United States of striking a desalination plant on Qeshm, which Iran said cut fresh water to 30 villages. The U.S. military denied carrying out the attack.

On May 7, U.S. Central Command said it had carried out self-defense strikes after Iranian attacks on U.S. destroyers passing through the strait, and a U.S. official said the targets included sites in Bandar Abbas and on Qeshm. Iran’s military said the strikes hit civilian areas on the island’s coast.

On July 14, the Hormozgan governor’s office said a location on Qeshm had been struck by U.S. projectiles, during a new wave of U.S. strikes on Iran’s ports.

On the night of November 2, at least five explosions were reported across the island, with more at the mainland port of Bandar Lengeh. A U.S. official described the strike as a “defensive measure” against Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have downed two U.S. drones south of Qeshm the same day, which the U.S. military has not confirmed.

Before the war, Qeshm was better known as a free trade zone and a nature destination than as a fortress. Iran has run the island as a free trade-industrial zone for more than three decades, with tax breaks and lighter customs rules meant to draw trade and Iranian shoppers.

Its landscape earned it a place on UNESCO’s list of global geoparks. Qeshm became the Middle East’s first geopark recognized under UNESCO’s program in 2006, was dropped from the global network in 2013 after warnings about weak protection, and regained the label as a UNESCO Global Geopark on May 5, 2017. Its best-known sites are the Namakdan salt cave, which runs for about 6.6 kilometers and is among the longest salt caves known; the eroded rock pillars of the Valley of Stars; and the Chahkooh canyon.

The Hara mangrove forest along the Khuran Strait, made up mostly of grey mangrove trees, is a breeding ground for migratory birds and one of the largest mangrove areas in Iran.

The island’s strategic value is not new. The Portuguese built a stone fort on Qeshm in 1621, and a combined Persian and English force drove them out the following year, a step toward ending Portugal’s control of the strait.

As long as the war continues, Qeshm is the place where any reopening of the strait will be tested. Before the war about 78 ships a day passed through Hormuz; as of November 2, 2026, only three or four a day were getting through, and the U.S. Navy has blockaded Iran’s ports since July.

The framework Qatari mediators have discussed with both sides would have Iran stop attacking ships in exchange for the United States lifting that blockade. Any such deal would depend on what the Guards do from islands like Qeshm. Our Strait of Hormuz status tracker follows the strait day by day, and our Iran-US talks tracker follows the negotiations.