Main developments
Donald Trump warned that the US would “blow up” Iran’s South Pars gasfield if it attacked Qatar’s liquefied natural gas facilities again.
Qatar said Iran had inflicted “extensive damage” after missile attacks around the Ras Laffan terminal, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facility. The UAE’s Habshan gas facility suspended operations.
Iran had vowed to retaliate after its South Pars gasfield and neighbouring refineries were targeted by strikes. Israel struck the gasfield, the world’s largest.
Brent crude climbed 4 per cent to push past $110 a barrel.
A fire broke out on a vessel east of the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by an “unknown projectile”, the UK’s maritime agency said.
Trump says US could ‘massively’ blow up Iran gasfield
Donald Trump warned that the US would “blow up” Iran’s South Pars gasfield if it attacked Qatar’s liquified natural gas facilities again, even as he sought to distance Washington from Israel’s initial strikes on the area.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said Israel had “violently lashed out” at the South Pars gas field “out of anger”, but hit only a small portion of the area.
Iran later struck the world’s largest liquefied natural gas field in Qatar in retaliation.
“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen”, Trump wrote.
The US president then said that “ NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL” on the South Pars Field “unless Iran unwisely decides to attack . . . Qatar”.
“In which instance the United States of America . . . will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field,” Trump said.
The comments reveal an emerging split between the US and Israel over targeting Iran’s energy infrastructure.
White House officials earlier in the day said that the US was aware of the Israeli attack even if it did not take part in it.
Iranian strike inflicts ‘extensive’ damage on world’s largest LNG site
Iranian missiles inflicted “extensive further damage” on Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facility, in Qatar in the early hours of Thursday morning.
QatarEnergy said several of its LNG facilities were subject to missile attacks, causing “sizeable fires and extensive further damage”.
The attacks came after an Iranian strike on Wednesday at Ras Laffan resulted in what the company called “extensive damage” to the Pearl GTL, or gas to liquids, facility. The defence ministry said the latest missile salvo had also targeted Ras Laffan.
Qatar, the second-largest producer of LNG in the world, is the biggest supplier to Asia. Ras Laffan, which is usually responsible for one-fifth of global LNG supplies, was attacked by Iran in retaliation for a strike on its large South Pars gasfield.
