US strikes Iran ahead of midterm elections

Trump has also warned about potential strikes on suspected nuclear site

The new strikes were carried out on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, state officials told CBS.

On Monday, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported several explosions on the island.

By the US officials, these strikes were described as limited, adding that they were in response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) firing upon a US aircraft.

The latest strikes come ahead of the midterm elections in the United States.

These elections will determine who will control Congress, the Republicans or Democrats.

US President Donald Trump has been facing falling polling numbers and pressure from within his party to end the war, which began when the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, the BBC reported.

Trump told reporters on Monday that he was in “no rush” to ramp up strikes on Iran.

“One way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush. We crippled them financially,” Trump told news outlet Axios.

“They have no money, no gasoline and their people are getting very tired of it.”

The possibility of US nuclear strikes on Iran

In an interview with Fox News on the eve of midterm elections, Trump said that the US “might need to go after Pickaxe”, a site linked to Iran's nuclear programme.

Trump added that this was “not a big deal” and could be done in “one hour”.

By Western and Israeli intelligence, Pickaxe Mountain is widely suspected to be a secret, deeply buried nuclear-related site in Iran.

However, the Iranian government denies that any nuclear activity takes place there.

Political commentator Tucker Carlson has claimed that Donald Trump could launch a nuclear attack on Iran “within days.”

In a post on X over the weekend, the conservative commentator claimed Netanyahu is “pushing hard” for the Trump administration to escalate the Iran war with a nuclear strike.

The former Fox News presenter wrote: “Under pressure from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran.”

He said that the target for a strike would be “Pickax Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program.”

While Carlson’s claims have been widely derided, according to analysts there is no doubt that the US is planning, in co-operation with Israel, a third major wave of military strikes against Iran.