Trump Confirms New US Strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island as Qatar Pushes 48-Hour Peace Plan

WEST PALM BEACH — President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that the United States carried out new limited strikes on Iran, hitting an air-defence system on Qeshm Island four days after an earlier round of American strikes in the Strait of Hormuz — even as mediators in Doha pressed both sides toward a deal to end the eight-month war.

Speaking to reporters after arriving on Air Force One in Florida, Trump called the operation "minor" and said American forces had destroyed an Iranian anti-aircraft system Tehran had recently rebuilt.

"We do minor strikes," Trump said. "They knocked out — they built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device, and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five."

Trump gave no further details about the target. Iranian state media reported the sound of two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about a fifth of the world's oil moves. IRNA quoted witnesses as saying two projectiles struck the island after an aircraft was heard overhead.

A second strike on Qeshm in five days

Friday's operation was the second American strike on Qeshm in less than a week. On Monday, the United States carried out what it described as defensive strikes after Iranian fire at American assets, with explosions reported on Qeshm and Hengam islands and in the nearby mainland area of Bandar Abbas. Trump publicly confirmed that earlier strike in a Fox News interview, calling it "just a minor attack, it wasn't war." American media reported this week that the United States had secretly struck Iranian targets for weeks while publicly saying no fighting was under way.

American officials have said most of Iran's air-defence systems were destroyed or badly degraded during Israel's bombardment in June 2025 and in the early stages of the current conflict. Friday's strike suggests Tehran has been rebuilding some of those defences — and Washington will hit them again as soon as they appear.

The pattern is deliberate: Washington is keeping military pressure on Iran while insisting it does not seek a wider war, striking a single rebuilt system at a time rather than launching the large-scale campaign American commanders have prepared for. The New York Times reported this week that thousands of American air and naval forces on more than a dozen ships and at bases around the Middle East stand ready to resume major combat operations on Trump's orders.

A third American carrier group, led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt, is steaming toward the Gulf and is expected in mid-November, joining two carrier groups already in the region. United States Central Command has completed preparations for large-scale operations but had received no orders to resume combat as of Friday.

Tehran claims a drone downed; Washington stays quiet

Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported an Iranian army statement saying the country's air-defence forces intercepted and destroyed an American MQ-9 drone over Qeshm Island, though other Iranian reports differed on the aircraft type.

American officials have not confirmed any loss of an aircraft. In response to reports of the explosions, United States Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said the situation was "relatively calm" and offered no further comment.

The exchanges at sea have continued in parallel. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said this week that two tankers and a tugboat caught fire after striking naval mines while using unauthorised routes through the strait, and Iran's army reported three more tankers damaged. The British military's maritime trade office separately reported a vessel struck by two unidentified projectiles about 50 nautical miles north of Qatar. The Iranian mine claims have not been independently confirmed.

Qatar's 48-hour plan

The strikes landed amid a diplomatic push. Qatar has formally submitted a two-stage, 48-hour reciprocal plan to the United States and Iran aimed at averting renewed large-scale hostilities.

Under the plan, the first day would see the United States lift its naval blockade of Iran and release a portion of Iran's frozen financial assets, while Iran would invite the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect nuclear facilities damaged in earlier strikes. On the second day, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and both sides would resume nuclear talks, with Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium as the central issue.

Neither side had accepted the proposal as of Friday. Iran has separately sent Washington a nuclear proposal through Qatar, setting out seven conditions that include lifting sanctions, releasing frozen assets, paying war reparations, ending the naval blockade and reducing the American military presence.

Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, said at Oxford University on Friday that mediation remains active to prevent a major regional escalation, warning the crisis "cannot be left unresolved." He said Qatar has worked for two weeks with American officials who have "very genuine intentions" to contain and de-escalate the situation, and credited "wise voices in Tehran" with helping prevent it from spiralling out of control.

On Saturday, Qatar dismissed reports claiming the negotiations had failed. "Promoting such false claims serves only those seeking to prolong the war and destabilise the region," said Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry. Trump sounded upbeat about the talks on Friday. "We're dealing with them now. They want to make a deal," he said. "We've made a lot of progress with Iran."

A $20 million reward and a region-wide alert

Hours after the strikes, United States Central Command announced that Washington is offering a reward of up to $20 million, along with possible relocation, for information about Iran's nuclear programme, including its facilities, equipment, personnel and their movements.

The United States also issued a security alert for Americans across ten Middle Eastern countries, warning of possible attacks, airspace closures and travel disruption.

Brent crude traded near $98 a barrel on Friday, still on course for its biggest weekly loss since April 2020. Traders have been pricing both a possible deal and a possible resumption of full-scale strikes at the same time.

A war at a crossroads

Friday's strikes were the first since Trump's Republican Party lost control of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections — a defeat Trump has blamed on the Iran war. Since Tuesday, Trump has shifted between threatening Iran and suggesting a resolution is near. On Thursday he said the United States may have to "destroy" the rest of Iran, adding that people will "know soon enough" if he acts.

That tension — between a president who says a deal is close and a military posture built for a much larger campaign — now defines the war's next phase. The Qatar plan offers a sequenced way out: blockade relief and inspectors first, an open strait and nuclear talks second. But Tehran's seven conditions go further than Washington has publicly accepted, and Friday's strike shows the United States will keep hitting rebuilt defences while the talking continues.

For now, both sides are still talking, and both sides are still shooting. Whether the next days bring a signed framework or a wider war will depend on whether the mediators in Doha can turn a 48-hour plan into something neither capital has yet accepted.