The US carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island overnight. This is not the first time the United States has struck the island. In June, it targeted Iranian surveillance installations on Goruk and Qeshm Island. This came after Iran launched drone threats from the area. Al-Ain media in the United Arab Emirates calls the island an “eye” on Hormuz and also a “blind spot” in Iran’s defenses.
The dual nature of the island, as both a threat and a vulnerability to the Iranian regime, is interesting. The same geography that enables Iran to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz also exposes its military infrastructure to US strikes.
According to Al-Ain News, American forces carried out strikes on Qeshm Island on Monday. The report cited US media accounts and officials who indicated that the strikes were limited in scope. One US official told Reuters that the attacks “appeared to be limited and did not represent a resumption of large-scale combat operations.”
The reported strikes came amid continuing tensions between Washington and Tehran and renewed questions about whether the United States might expand military operations against Iran.
Al-Ain noted that Qeshm is located approximately 22 kilometers south of Bandar Abbas, the Iranian port city that serves as an important center for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. The island is more than 130 kilometers long and therefore has a lot of coastline threatening the Strait of Hormuz. It is also around 40 kilometers wide at its widest point.
The location of the island gives Iran the ability to monitor shipping and deploy forces to threaten vessels moving through the strait. Tehran has invested heavily in various types of naval threats via the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which uses small, fast boats. Iran also has anti-ship missiles, drones, and coastal surveillance systems.
Al-Ain News reported that Qeshm contains extensive underground military infrastructure associated with the IRGC. These facilities reportedly include weapons depots, missile launch platforms, radar installations, and fortified shelters for naval vessels.
A new video circulating online on Tuesday appeared to show an Iranian underground facility that houses various weapons systems. It is not clear where the bunker is located. Iran is signaling that it has many ways to threaten the Gulf countries and the US if war reignites.
Qeshm Island functions as both a symbol of strength and weakness
The island represents a kind of physical aircraft carrier for Iran. A large landmass that enables Iran to threaten shipping and hide small vessels and other munitions. Iran does not need to maintain a conventional naval fleet capable of fighting the US Navy in open waters. Instead, it can seek to complicate maritime operations through missile batteries, small vessels, and unmanned systems. All it has to do is present a threat. It doesn’t have to fight one-to-one odds. It can face immense odds, and it knows that just one missile getting through is a major threat.
Qeshm also illustrates the limitations of this Iranian octopus-like menace. Fixed infrastructure, such as fortifications, is vulnerable. Radar systems, launch sites, communications networks, and entrances to underground facilities can be targeted. The United States does not necessarily need to destroy every missile or naval vessel to weaken Iran’s ability to coordinate attacks.
Qeshm is part of the wider chessboard on which Iran seeks to play its dangerous game. Iran has spent decades investing in various ways to threaten shipping and the Gulf countries, as well as US bases.
The US and its partners have sought to prevent Tehran from translating that threat into control over one of the world’s most important energy corridors. Some argue that the US is winning this contest of attrition. Others see high oil prices, still around $100 a barrel, and argue that Iran continues to have an effect.