The US military struck Iran’s Qeshm island on Monday, in what American officials described as a limited defensive action against Iranian forces accused of planning missile attacks on US facilities. Officials said there were no immediate plans to escalate the operation. The strike came ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to the report.
President Donald Trump confirmed the attack in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, saying the US hit an air-defense facility after it was completed. He characterized the operation as a targeted strike.
Trump has threatened in recent days to resume attacks on Iran after the elections. But on Monday, he said on social media that a deal with Tehran “could happen.” In a separate Fox News interview that evening, he said the two countries were not at war, while warning that a conflict could follow if Iran did not reach an agreement. He also said Tehran wanted a deal and that an agreement was possible.
Vice President J. D. Vance said on Monday that the United States and Iran had made some progress, adding that he and Trump were “quite optimistic” about the prospects for an agreement. Trump’s shifting positions on Iran have left people, including within his administration, uncertain about his next steps, the report said.
The Qeshm strike, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, resembled other limited US attacks on Iran in recent weeks, an American official said. The operations were intended to prevent Iran from attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Previous strikes hit empty cruise-missile launchers, another official said.
That official said Monday’s strike followed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s downing of a US drone and its firing on two American fighter jets flying over the strait. The jets were not hit.
The recent US strikes were the first American bombardments of targets inside Iran since two days of attacks in early September, the report said. The United States also destroyed five Iranian oil tankers carrying crude earlier that month, in retaliation for Iranian missile launches at two US warships in the Arabian Sea. The missiles did not hit the ships.
Sources: Folha Mundo.