Fresh tensions erupted across two of Iran's most strategically sensitive locations late Monday as Tehran scrambled air defense systems against suspected US-Israeli drones — one near the Strait of Hormuz and another over the nuclear-adjacent city of Isfahan.
The incident thrown a shadow over fragile ceasefire negotiations that had just hours earlier prompted US President Trump to call off a planned military strike.
According to Mehr News Agency and Middle East Monitor, Iranian air defence systems were activated against suspected drones over Qeshm Island, while officials confirmed explosions in the area. No damage has been reported.
The incident takes on heightened significance as Qeshm Island remains central to the IRGC's recently expanded "operational area" around the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint through which a vast share of global oil supply passes, and which Iran has effectively kept closed since the war began in February.
Officials in the southern province of Hormozgan said in a statement that the explosions resulted from the activation of air defense systems against small drones and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles, with authorities adding that no damage to the island was reported. Iran's IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency specified that micro-drones had been detected, triggering the defensive response.
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In a separate but near-simultaneous incident, air defense systems were also activated in the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday night, according to Mehr news agency.
Isfahan is home to major IRGC air bases and lies near the Natanz underground nuclear enrichment facility — one of the most heavily guarded sites in the country and a repeated target of suspected US-Israeli operations since the war began.
Tasnim cited informed sources saying the systems were responding to what they described as "hostile targets," though Iranian authorities issued no official explanation for the Isfahan activation.
The twin incidents Tuesday signal that aerial surveillance and strike operations have continued even as both sides engage in Gulf-brokered diplomacy, exposing just how precarious the current pause in hostilities truly is.
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