US President Donald Trump confirmed US military strikes on the Iranian island of Qeshm, saying Washington had made “a lot of progress” in negotiations with Iran.
Trump said Friday that U.S. forces had carried out what he described as minor strikes against Iranian air defense systems.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“We are doing minor strikes,” Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida. “They destroyed – they built a little anti-aircraft device, and we destroyed it in about 15 minutes, maybe five.”
Trump spoke shortly after Iranian state media reported two missile strikes in the Suza region on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for oil shipments.
State broadcaster IRIB also reported a statement from the Iranian military, saying the country’s air defense forces had intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-9 drone over Qeshm island.
In response to reports of explosions heard in Qeshm, US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said the situation was “relatively calm”.
A CENTCOM official told Al Jazeera he was aware of the reports, adding he had no further comment.
CENTCOM announced in a post on
On Monday, Iranian media reported several explosions on the island of Qeshm, while U.S. media reported that the U.S. military had carried out what officials called “defensive strikes” in the Strait of Hormuz.
Ongoing talks
On Friday, Trump repeatedly told reporters that his administration was talking with representatives from Tehran.
“We are dealing with them now. They want to make a deal,” the US president said.
“We have made a lot of progress with Iran,” he added, without providing details.
On Saturday, Qatar denied reports claiming that negotiations between the United States and Iran had failed, warning that such claims only benefited “those who seek to prolong the war.”
“Promoting such false claims only serves those who seek to prolong the war and destabilize the region,” Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said in an article on X.
Qatar Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said in a public interview at Oxford University on Friday that mediation efforts remained active to prevent a major regional escalation, warning that the crisis “cannot remain unresolved.”
Speaking at the university event, the Prime Minister said that “in recent weeks we have worked with colleagues in the US administration who have real intentions to find a way to contain the situation and de-escalate it.”
Mediation efforts continue “to prevent the situation from getting out of control,” he confirmed, adding that “thanks also to some wise voices in Tehran, we have prevented the situation from getting out of control.”
Friday’s strikes are the first since Trump’s Republican Party suffered a major blow in Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States. Trump blamed the election results on the war in Iran.
Since Tuesday’s midterms, Trump has oscillated between threatening Iran and suggesting that a resolution to the war is near. On Thursday, Trump said the United States may have to “destroy” the rest of Iran, adding that people “will know soon enough” if he acts.
Unnamed Pentagon officials and military commanders told The New York Times on Wednesday that thousands of U.S. air and naval forces, aboard more than a dozen ships and at bases across the Middle East and the United States, were poised to resume major combat operations against Iran on Trump’s orders.
Tehran has stepped up its diplomatic efforts as Trump suggested the United States could resume large-scale strikes against Iran.
Gn usa
