Al Jazeera news: Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Tuesday that any US strategic error would open "a new battlefield in the war" after a reported US strike on Qeshm Island. The parliament speaker said Iran was at its highest level of defensive readiness and put responsibility for stopping further escalation on Washington.
Qeshm Island overnight reports
Residents of Qeshm Island, Hengam and Bandar Abbas reported successive explosions and tremors overnight, according to IRNA and Fars. That account came alongside reports that a US Air Force jet struck an IRGC surface-to-air missile launch system on Qeshm Island, a claim tied in the reports to the Strait of Hormuz and commercial shipping.
US media outlets also reported that a missile had been fired from Qeshm at a US aircraft in the Strait of Hormuz. The operation was described as limited and aimed at protecting commercial shipping, placing the reported strike inside a fast-moving chain of claims and counterclaims rather than a settled account of what happened on the island.
CENTCOM and the IRGC
CENTCOM issued no formal statement confirming or denying the accounts. No Iranian military or government official formally confirmed a direct attack on the island, while the IRGC said separately that its electronic warfare systems had downed two US MQM-170 reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm Island and destroyed a US MQ-9 drone east of the Strait of Hormuz.
Ghalibaf told parliament that late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as commander-in-chief, had defined Iran's military strategy for confronting a possible attack, and he said senior military commanders and Mojtaba Khamenei were involved in that strategy. He added, "The ball is in America's court to prevent war," making the current standoff a question of whether Washington or Tehran moves first in the next exchange.
Ali Khamenei strategy
The immediate unanswered issue is whether the reported US strike on Qeshm Island occurred as described, and if so, what was hit. Until CENTCOM or Iranian authorities put a formal position on the record, the overnight reports remain a disputed military claim with direct implications for traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and for the way both US and Iranian forces frame the next move.
