Iran has called the US response to its seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz “unconvincing” as US President Donald Trump confirmed launching attacks on an Iranian island near the strategic waterway. Tuesday’s events came as Qatar stepped up diplomatic efforts to prevent a new war between the United States and Iran and as another oil tanker was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. whether the United States meets Tehran’s seven demands, including lifting sanctions and ending the US naval blockade. Despite reports of progress in recent days, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tuesday that Washington’s response had been insufficient. “The US response to Iran’s rights and demands was not convincing, and they must fully and explicitly address Iran’s seven conditions and act accordingly,” he wrote in He said Qatar was facilitating the “real-time exchange of proposals between” the United States and Iran. Qeshm Island Attack In Washington, DC, Trump confirmed that the United States had attacked Iran early Tuesday and told Fox News that the attacks had targeted an anti-aircraft facility. He described “They built an anti-aircraft installation. It took them about two months. We watched it being built. As soon as it was finished, we attacked it last night,” he said. Iranian media said the strikes hit Qeshm Island in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier in the day, US officials told US media that the strikes had been “defensive” and came after Iranian fire on a US plane. The strikes came as U.S. media, citing U.S. officials, reported that Central Command had prepared plans for strikes that could begin as soon as Wednesday, after the midterm elections, when three U.S. aircraft carriers would be in the region. US media have previously reported that the planned campaign would be short and intense. Meanwhile, Trump repeated warnings of further military action on Tuesday, saying, “I’m not looking to… kill a lot of people” and “If we have to, we’ll have it.” In a previous interview with the Financial Times, he suggested he was happy with the state of the standoff with Iran. “It seems like we’re getting everything we want,” the newspaper quoted him as saying in a six-minute phone interview. Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the military over the weekend to respond to any threats immediately and without geographical limits, and update its list of targets. Iranian officials have suggested that European countries and undersea cables in the Gulf could be their targets. (IRGC) claimed on Wednesday that four oil tankers were destroyed after hitting naval mines while attempting to pass through a prohibited sea route south of the Strait of Hormuz. The tankers remained on fire after the explosions, the IRGC said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency. Two other vessels were detained for violating shipping restrictions, he added. Earlier, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that two unidentified projectiles hit the engine room of an oil tanker on Tuesday about 14 nautical miles (26 kilometers) northeast of the coastal village of Limah in Oman. No casualties were reported. It could not be independently verified whether the incidents reported by the UKMTO and the IRGC were related. The IRGC also claimed that its air defense forces shot down a US-made MQ-9 drone over the strait at 4.30am local time (0100 GMT), describing it as the 56th aircraft it had shot down. The statement said the operations were carried out by IRGC naval and aerospace forces, which had inflicted “heavy blows on the enemy.” John Mearsheimer, an American political scientist, questioned whether another brief bombing campaign could achieve Washington’s objectives, warning that Iranian retaliation could drag the US into a longer confrontation. “If the 40-day bombing campaign didn’t work, how is the bombing campaign going to work?” three days?” he asked in a video commentary, referring to the initial air campaign between the United States and Israel and proposals for a shorter renewed offensive. He argued that an Iranian response could provoke further American escalation, increasing the damage to the global economy.
