U.S. Strikes Iran's Qeshm Island on the Eve of the Midterm Elections
A U.S. official said the Nov. 2 attack was a defensive operation meant to keep Iran from using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets; Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it shot down two U.S. drones south of the island.
The United States attacked Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, Nov. 2, conducting what a U.S. official described as a defensive operation on the eve of the midterm elections, USA TODAY reported. The BBC, citing U.S. officials who spoke to its U.S. partner CBS, likewise reported strikes on the island, and Iranian state news agency IRNA reported several explosions there on Monday.
The attack was intended to prevent Iran from using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets in the region, the U.S. official told USA TODAY. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Nov. 2 that it shot down two U.S. military drones south of Qeshm Island, according to Tasnim, an Iranian news agency close to the IRGC. The Pentagon referred questions to U.S. Central Command, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the strikes were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
CENTCOM had not publicly disclosed any strikes against Iranian military targets since Sept. 1, USA TODAY reported, and President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to downplay the extent of the fighting in the weeks leading up to the midterms. Speaking at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool earlier on Nov. 2, Trump said the Iran war is "not a war," adding, according to USA TODAY, "I don't know if you even call it a war because we haven't been doing any fighting for months."
The strikes came as Vice President JD Vance has led a diplomatic effort to restart peace negotiations in the days before the midterms. Vance told reporters on Nov. 2 that Washington has not set a deadline for Tehran to agree to a ceasefire, that Trump retains both military and non-military options, and that U.S. officials recently had several "good conversations with the Iranians." "We've certainly made some progress," Vance said, in USA TODAY's account. "We'll see if we can make some more."
