The US struck Iran on the eve of crucial midterm elections on Monday night. Targets on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz were hit in what was described by Washington as a defensive move to protect US military assets in the Middle East.
“This was a defensive measure for Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against US assets,” a US official said on Monday night. Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard on the island overnight.
The strikes on Qeshm Island appeared to be limited and not a return to the major US combat operations against Iran that took place from February to April.
The price of Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was flat in Asia, while gold was up 1.4 per cent.
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US Central Command, which oversees American operations in the Middle East, did not respond to a request for comment.
There was no official confirmation from Tehran of the strike on Qeshm, but state media reported five explosions. The elite Revolutionary Guards claimed to have brought down two US reconnaissance drones over Qeshm and a drone in the east of the Strait of Hormuz.
Located just south of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm is Iran’s largest island fortress. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has multiple naval and missile bases across the island, and its civilian infrastructure can allow the IRGC to conceal some of its activity.
Qeshm is “an active IRGC node for missile, drone, and naval operations directed at the Strait of Hormuz”, said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank.
The island “dominates the northern approaches to the Strait of Hormuz and gives the IRGC an ideal place to monitor and affect shipping”, Nadimi added.
The strikes, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, broke Trump’s vow not to attack Iran before Tuesday’s midterm elections when Americans voted in polls widely seen as a referendum on his second presidency.
Trump’s war on Iran has become a political liability for Republicans fighting to keep control of Congress, as the conflict has driven up the cost of petrol and other goods and services, contributing to what voters feel is a cost of living crisis in the US.
Trump is weighing a return to full-scale war against Iran after the election, a scenario Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is pushing the US president towards. The two leaders, who launched the conflict together in February, spoke over the weekend but Trump had yet to make a decision, according to people familiar with the matter.
Middle Eastern officials have warned that renewed fighting could be more intense than those previous rounds. Iran has said that retaliation would be “immediate, effective” and “without any geographical limitations”.
Earlier on Monday, Trump and US vice-president JD Vance said a diplomatic solution between Washington and Tehran was still possible.
Qatari negotiators were in Tehran on Monday for talks with Iranian officials as mediators pushed for an interim deal between the US and Iran. A diplomat briefed on the talks said the discussions were “positive”.
“The two sides are now separately reviewing the latest suggestions from mediators aimed at bridging the gaps,” the diplomat said.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Tuesday that Tehran had delivered a “firm and rational” response to Washington and “the ball is now in the US court to prevent a war”.
Vance said the US had “had a number of good conversations with the Iranians”, and that he had spoken to Trump on Monday about continuing diplomacy.
“Look, the president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We’re going to keep on working at it. You never know, of course,” he added. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
