Iran Says Hormuz Stays Shut as Trump Confirms Qeshm Strike

Photo: Gulf News (map of the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian military bases, including Qeshm Island)

Iran has said the American reply to its seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz is not convincing, so the waterway stays shut for now. The blunt response came on the same day Donald Trump confirmed US forces had struck an anti-aircraft site on Qeshm Island, and as another tanker was hit near the strait.

It was Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who put Tehran's position in plain words on X on Tuesday. He said Washington's response to Iran's rights and demands was not convincing, and that the Americans must fully and explicitly address the seven conditions and act on them. Only then, he wrote, will the Strait of Hormuz be reopened.

Iran's offer, as Al Jazeera reported, is to reopen the waterway over two days if the United States meets those demands. They include lifting sanctions and ending the US naval blockade. A senior Iranian official told Dawn the conditions also cover waiving oil sanctions and releasing frozen Iranian funds.

Trump, meanwhile, has now said openly what US officials had only hinted at. In a phone interview with Fox News on Tuesday, he confirmed American forces hit an anti-aircraft facility on Qeshm Island, the large Iranian island that sits close to the Strait of Hormuz. He said the Americans had watched the site being built for about two months, and struck as soon as it was finished.

"They built an anti-aircraft facility. It took them about two months. We watched it get built. As soon as it was completed, we hit it last night," he said, calling the operation a minor attack and insisting it was not war. US officials described the strikes as defensive, saying they followed Iranian fire at an American aircraft. Iranian state news agency IRNA reported five explosions in quick succession on Qeshm, and residents seeing two aircraft in the island's skies.

Qatar, which is mediating between the two sides, is still trying to hold the talks together. Its foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said both sides remain committed to the negotiation process, and that Doha is facilitating a real-time exchange of proposals between them. Dawn reported that Qatar remains hopeful of an interim deal, and that its mediators travelled to Tehran on Monday night for talks on a draft deal discussed over the past eight days.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his government is still trying to settle the crisis through dialogue, and that no one would benefit if the war reignited. But Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, struck a harder note, saying the country stands ready for battle with its finger on the trigger, while also saying it has given the American side a powerful and rational response. Al Jazeera reported that Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, ordered the military at the weekend to respond to any threat immediately and without geographical limits.

The danger at sea has not gone away either. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that two unidentified projectiles struck a tanker's engine room about 14 nautical miles northeast of Oman's coastal village of Limah on Tuesday, with no casualties reported. Separately, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed four tankers had struck mines and caught fire after using what it called unauthorised routes through Hormuz, and said its forces had seized two other vessels. That account could not be independently verified or linked to the incident reported by UKMTO.

For ordinary people, this is not just a faraway standoff. The Strait of Hormuz carries a huge share of the world's oil and gas, so trouble there tends to push world oil prices up, and Pakistanis have already felt that pressure in fuel prices this week, from petrol down to Rs369.06 and diesel to Rs391.52 from today. A longer shutdown would make that pressure worse, which is why the Qatar talks matter far beyond the Gulf. The same week has already reshaped Washington too, with Democrats flipping the US Senate and Democrats projected to win the US House, while Syria said it foiled a Hezbollah plot to blow up the Homs oil refinery.

Trump has also warned of further military action, saying he is not looking to kill lots of people but adding, "If we have to, we'll have to." Al Jazeera reported that US media, citing US officials, said Central Command had prepared plans for strikes that could begin as early as Wednesday, after the midterm elections, when three American aircraft carriers would be in the region.

Sources

Al Jazeera: Iran says US reply to Hormuz plan 'unconvincing'; Trump confirms strikes

Dawn: Iran warns against return to war after US strikes

Gulf News: Trump confirms US strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island

Watch for Qatar's next round of proposals, and whether Washington answers Iran's seven conditions in full or the standoff at Hormuz drags on.

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