US strikes Iranian air defense on Qeshm in first raid since Republicans lost Congress

Days after American voters stripped his party of both chambers of Congress — an election shaped in part by his own war and the fuel prices it produced — Donald Trump ordered new strikes on Iran. The president confirmed that Friday's raids targeted an Iranian air defense system. "Minor," was his description: "They built a little bit of an anti-aircraft device and we knocked it out in about 15 minutes, maybe five."

Iranian state media reported two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, in the waterway that carries the world's oil. American officials say most of Iran's air defenses were destroyed or degraded in the June 2025 Israeli bombardment and the opening phase of the current conflict, and that Iran would inevitably try to rebuild what it lost. Earlier in the week, explosions were heard on Qeshm, the island of Hengam and the mainland area of Bandar Abbas during strikes the US military described as defensive.

Since the election, Trump has swung between threatening to "destroy" Iran and suggesting a resolution is near. On Friday both ran at once. Two Middle East government officials said Tehran was reviewing proposals presented by chief mediator Qatar on its nuclear program, while the president told reporters: "We are talking to Iran. We have been." The White House declined to comment on the proposals.

Iran's terms have not moved: no negotiations on its atomic activities until Washington ends the blockade of Iranian ports, lifts sanctions, unfreezes assets, pays compensation for war damage and ends hostilities across the region — including Israeli operations in Lebanon. Trump insists the nuclear file be settled in any deal ending the eight-month war.

In Tehran the tone is splitting. Manouchehr Mottaki, a parliament member who served as foreign minister under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told Euronews the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz "is not sustainable" — while noting that the Revolutionary Guard's navy has spent the past ten days driving unauthorized transit through the strait to zero, with "three, four, five, or even seven ships" immobilized daily by mines, drones and missiles. He called the American blockade illegal and demanded it end before talks resume.

The same evening, US Central Command posted a reward of up to $20 million, with possible relocation, for information on Iran's nuclear program — its facilities, its equipment and its personnel, "such as those in the scientific community."

The strikes were the first since Americans voted. The bounty for the scientists of the country the president says he is negotiating with came the same night.