Missiles hit Iran's Qeshm Island; Trump says US made 'minor strikes'

Local witnesses heard an aircraft over Qeshm Island before two projectiles came down in the Suza area, in southern Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. The semi-official Tasnim agency then gave its own initial account of two missiles hitting the island, and said no authority had yet provided information on possible damage.

That is the extent of what the Iranian agencies have put on the record: an impact, a place, and no account of casualties. Separately, CNBC reported that Trump said the United States had conducted "minor strikes" on Iran.

No official account of damage yet

Tasnim said fuller details would follow once the relevant authorities verify the incident, according to AOL, citing Reuters. None of the reports I read gives a number for casualties or sets out what was hit on the ground.

The Iranian agencies did not say who fired. The reports also do not state that the strikes described in Washington and the impacts described on Qeshm are one and the same event, so that link is not independently confirmed.

Qeshm sits beside the Strait of Hormuz

Qeshm Island lies close to the Strait of Hormuz, the passage at the mouth of the Gulf that tankers use to carry crude out of the region. Military action on Iranian soil that near the waterway turns a shipping route into part of the exchange, which is why a strike called minor in one capital is still read as an energy-supply story elsewhere.

In plain words: a chokepoint is a narrow stretch of water that a large volume of seaborne cargo has to pass through, with no quick way around it. When there is fighting near one, buyers of oil and of the insurance covering the ships carrying it have to account for the chance that traffic is interrupted. The possibility is priced even on days when every tanker arrives as scheduled.

Qatar says the talks have not collapsed

Also on Saturday, Qatar's International Media Office rejected circulating claims that the United States and Iran had failed to agree on ending their war, describing those reports as false and misleading, AOL reported, citing Reuters.

The office said Qatar's prime minister had affirmed that both sides are still working toward an agreement, and that Qatari mediation continues in close coordination with Washington and Tehran.