Tankers ablaze in Strait of Hormuz as Iran weighs Qatar's peace pitch

Explosions have rocked Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, and tankers in the strategic waterway have caught fire after striking mines. The blasts land in the same stretch of water that carries a huge share of the world's oil, keeping nerves raw across the Middle East and beyond.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard isn't dialling anything back. The force says it has scrapped its self-imposed cap of 2,000 kilometres on the range of its ballistic missiles — a limit it had been observing on its own, with no one forcing the issue.

The military pressure is running in both directions. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that American forces had carried out fresh limited strikes against an Iranian air defence system, brushing the operation off to reporters as minor. For weeks he's been floating the idea of a bigger wave of strikes once the US midterms — held on November 3 — were out of the way, and the region has been bracing for the first full-scale US operations against Iran in almost two months.

Diplomacy is still moving, though. Trump spoke on Friday with Qatar's emir about efforts to calm the region, according to the Gulf state leader's office, with the two discussing Qatari mediation aimed at a comprehensive agreement that ends the crisis and delivers security and stability.

According to the Associated Press, Iran is now reviewing proposals Qatar put on the table, covering its differences with Washington over Tehran's nuclear program. The news is stirring hopes that the two sides could edge toward indirect talks on one of the thorniest issues Trump says any deal must settle.

Don't book the handshake yet. Officials stress Iran won't negotiate with the Trump administration over its atomic activities until the US agrees to several conditions — and the officials who described the delicate state of play weren't authorised to speak publicly, so they did so anonymously. The war is now more than eight months old.