Explosions on Iran’s Qeshm island, as the IRGC says it captured two US drones and Trump plays down new strikes after the election

Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that several explosions were heard late on Monday, November 2, on Qeshm island, in the Strait of Hormuz, with the cause remaining unclear. There was no official confirmation from the Iranian side of the source of the blasts. Earlier the same day, Donald Trump had answered in the negative when asked whether he is considering striking Iran again after Tuesday’s midterm elections.

The Guards say they captured two US drones south of Qeshm

The same night the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had taken control of two US MQM-170 reconnaissance drones south of Qeshm. The statement, published by the Mehr agency, says the two aircraft were disabled and captured with advanced electronic warfare systems of the Guards’ Aerospace Force. The MQM-170s under the Guards’ control thus come, by their account, to four.

The Guards also claimed they shot down a US MQ-9 east of the Strait of Hormuz and that the MQ-9s they have downed now total 55. Messages from Qeshm residents, posted on the VahidOnline channel on Telegram, spoke of series of loud explosions, houses shaking and windows rattling. These claims have not been independently verified.

Trump: “No” to new strikes after the election

After a campaign event in Washington, the US president was asked by a reporter whether he is considering new strikes on Iran after Tuesday’s vote and answered “No”. He suggested that the diplomatic arrangements are “going very well” and linked this to falling oil prices: “That’s why, I guess, oil prices are falling so sharply.”

He insisted that Tehran will never acquire nuclear weapons and urged voters to keep his administration’s efforts in mind “when they go into the booth”. He also argued that US pressure has brought the Iranian economy to its knees: “We’ve brought them to their knees economically. They have no money, no gasoline, and their people are starting to get fed up.” Of Tehran’s nuclear programme he said: “We stopped it a year ago with those beautiful B-2s, which hit every target and dropped hundreds of tons of rock on everything.”

In a separate interview with Axios, Mr Trump kept open the possibility of military action: “One way or the other we’ll do something, but we’re not in a hurry.” In October he had pledged not to attack Iran before the midterm elections of November 3. Earlier developments are covered in our report on the warnings to Gulf states.