Mehdi Hasan rejected the White House’s framing of its latest military action in the Gulf on Iranian targets as a “defensive strike”. In a post on X, the Zeteo editor-in-chief wrote:
“There’s no such thing as a “defensive strike” when you’re illegally attacking another country.”
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American forces conducted “defensive strikes” on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. The targets were “Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets,” the official said in the Associated Press report.
What are the latest reports on the 2026 Iran War?
Al Jazeera’s coverage of the strikes cited IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, reporting several explosions on Qeshm, an island at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. The Revolutionary Guard claimed to have downed two US drones; a claim refused by a US official.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Monday, downplayed the exchange. “We had a war with Iran. We won,” he said, adding that he was not sure it should be called a war “because we haven’t been doing any fighting for months.”
The strikes landed days after Tucker Carlson claimed, in a long post on X, that the administration “may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran.” Carlson named Pickaxe Mountain in central Iran as the target and cited an unnamed “informed observer” for the claim that Benjamin Netanyahu “calls Trump about it every day.” He offered no evidence, and no US official has confirmed such a plan.
A White House official told Anadolu Agency that the administration does not discuss sensitive military plans and that Trump is considering all options necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Trump had said in an October Newsmax interview that he would not use nuclear weapons against Iran.
Diplomacy has run alongside the strikes. Regional officials cited by the AP said Qatari mediators are trying to build a framework in which Iran halts attacks in the strait in return for the US lifting its blockade of Iranian ports. Reuters reported that Iranian negotiators had left talks in Doha with a draft proposal for a deal circulating.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
