U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that the United States had carried out a "minor strike" against Iran, following reports that two missiles struck the island of Qeshm near the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Reuters, citing the Iranian news agency Tasnim, these two missiles struck the island on Friday. Reuters also added that Tasnim stated that there is currently no official information regarding any losses.
Qeshm Island is located off the southern coast of Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz. This strait is an important passage for the transportation of oil and natural gas and has also become a hot spot in this war.
After landing in West Palm Beach, Florida on Friday evening, Trump told reporters that he would not make any specific comments regarding the incident at Gishem Island and said, "I don't want to talk about it."
But he added, "We will carry out a minor strike, but they will be destroyed. They built a small air defense system, and we took about 15 minutes to knock it down, maybe even 5 minutes." He did not explicitly confirm whether he was referring to the attack that reportedly occurred on the island of Geshem.
These strikes are the first since the mid-term elections on Tuesday. Prior to that, analysts and regional officials had been debating whether this vote would lead to a further escalation of tensions for Trump or whether he would revert to a more diplomatic approach.
The United States also struck the same island last Monday. A U.S. official told MS Now that that operation was a “defensive measure.”
Trump also told reporters that Iran "really wants to reach an agreement. They have an inflation rate of 300%. Their navy is gone. Their airports, everything is gone, they want to reach an agreement."
In a report released on October 13, the International Monetary Fund predicted that consumer prices in Iran would rise by an average of 78.6% in 2026.
When asked whether he hoped to reach an agreement "as soon as possible," Trump said, "Well, no one was injured, and no one died."
"You know, this is a war that we might have been involved in for seven months now, but we've actually been fighting for only three or four weeks. Besides, just look at World War I; that's what a war really is. World War II; that's what a war really is."
The Iranian side stated that before entering a new phase of diplomatic negotiations with the United States, they hope to see more than just "paper promises."
Ali Bagheri Kani, Deputy Secretary-General of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told the National Broadcasting Corporation on Friday: "We must see the Americans take concrete measures." According to reports from Press TV.
