Special Report: Iran and Hormuz — The Week on One Board
Two rounds of U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island, a $20 million bounty for Iran's nuclear secrets, mined tankers, a Kremlin message from Tehran and a scramble of Gulf diplomacy. Here is the week, day by day, with what each side claims — and what it means for America.
By Clara Hughes
It was a week when the war with Iran swung between missiles and mediators almost by the hour. U.S. forces struck Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz twice in five days. President Trump called Friday's action "minor strikes" on Iranian air defenses and, in the same breath, said, "We've made a lot of progress with Iran," according to Al Jazeera and AP. Iran's Revolutionary Guard answered with claims of mined tankers, underground missile factories and an end to self-imposed limits on missile range. And from Doha to Baghdad to Moscow, governments worked the phones to keep the shooting from becoming a full return to war. China's Xinhua summed up the week on Saturday: tensions "have escalated in recent days amid military clashes and maritime incidents near the Strait of Hormuz, while regional countries stepped up diplomatic efforts to ease the situation." As this was written, no new round of major U.S. combat operations had been announced, and no deal had been reached. Here is how the week unfolded. Keep reading with Altas Premium. Below: the full day-by-day board, the Hormuz shipping scoreboard, the $20 million Rewards for Justice offer, Tehran's Moscow outreach, and the America First read on