Blasts on Qeshm Island and at Jask port in southern Iran; cause unclear

Explosions were heard on Saturday, 7 November, on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz and at the southern port of Jask, Iranian media reported. Officials did not say what caused them, and there was no word on damage.

Accounts differed. The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported earlier in the day that two missiles had hit Qeshm, without saying who fired them. State television later said officials had not confirmed any missile strikes, and Tasnim quoted a source as saying the blasts on the island were unrelated to missiles. Some reports suggested the explosions may have been linked to Iranian military activity.

The blasts came a day after US President Donald Trump said American forces had carried out new limited strikes on Iran on Friday, aimed at an Iranian air defence system, and days after US strikes around Qeshm on 2 and 3 November that a US official described as limited and not a return to major combat. On the same Saturday, the US military said it had disabled a cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman that had left an Iranian port.

The waters around the strait remain dangerous. Tankers have caught fire after hitting mines, Australia’s ABC reported, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had lifted a self-imposed limit of 2,000 km on the range of its ballistic missiles. At the same time, Iran is reported to be studying proposals to reduce tension.

Why it matters

Qeshm, Iran’s largest island, lies in the Strait of Hormuz off the port of Bandar Abbas. About a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait. India buys much of its oil and cooking gas from Gulf producers whose cargoes use this route, so trouble there feeds quickly into fuel prices and shipping costs.

What’s next

Iran has not said whether it will accept any of the proposals to ease tension, and the US continues to enforce its blockade of Iranian shipping.