US President Donald Trump threatened to “massively blow up” a vast Iranian gas field unless Tehran stops striking Qatari energy facilities, which sustained extensive damage Thursday, as the nearly three-week-old Middle East war threatens global energy supplies.
Crude oil prices surged five percent following the latest strikes, feeding fears of lasting damage to international oil and gas markets. Tehran has carried out a series of attacks on Gulf energy sites, including Qatar’s huge Ras Laffan LNG facility, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field—part of the world’s largest natural gas reservoir.
In a social media post, Trump called for strikes on both Iranian and Qatari energy sites to halt, claiming Washington “knew nothing” of Israel’s earlier attack on South Pars. He vowed that “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL” on the site if Tehran stops attacking Qatar.
But if Iran did not comply, the United States would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field,” Trump warned.
Energy crisis deepens
Energy prices have already spiraled since tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s oil, was brought to a near standstill by the threat of Iranian attacks.
Qatar’s state energy company said firefighters managed to contain several blazes caused by Iranian missile attacks on its Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility. Saudi Arabia said it reserved the “right to take military actions” after intercepting drones targeting energy infrastructure in the east, while debris from a ballistic missile landed near a refinery south of Riyadh.
Death toll rises
An Iranian missile barrage killed a Thai foreign worker in central Israel, bringing the death toll in the country to 15, Israeli medics and Thailand’s foreign ministry said. Missile debris also killed three Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported.
Since launching the war on Iran on February 28, US and Israeli forces have depleted the Islamic republic’s leadership in a string of strikes. The latest killed intelligence chief Esmail Khatib, following the assassination of security chief Ali Larijani.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned Khatib’s killing as a “cowardly assassination,” while the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed retaliation. “Every drop of spilled blood comes at a price,” he said in a written message.
Khamenei has not appeared in public since taking power after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in the opening strikes of the war.
International diplomatic efforts
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken to Trump and the Emir of Qatar, calling for a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure. France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot is to travel to Lebanon on Thursday in a visit that “underlines France’s support and solidarity with the Lebanese people, dragged into a war they didn’t choose.”
In Washington, US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told Congress the Iranian government remained “intact but largely degraded,” while acknowledging Tehran had not resumed nuclear enrichment.
Lebanon drawn into conflict
Lebanon has been drawn into the conflict since the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel over Ali Khamenei’s death. Israeli strikes hit central Beirut multiple times on Wednesday, with casualties reported, as fighting with Hezbollah intensified.
A line of cars stretched as far as the eye could see along the country’s southern coast as residents of affected areas fled to the ancient city of Sidon. “Bakers died while making bread” in the village square and “municipal workers were martyred while using bulldozers,” said Nidal Ahmad Chokr, 55, who fled his village of Jibchit.
In Iraq, the pro-Iranian armed group Kataeb Hezbollah said it would halt attacks on the US embassy for five days, setting conditions including an end to Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs. AFP reported no drone or rocket fire targeting the US embassy in Baghdad from Wednesday night through Thursday morning.
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