Iran promptly retaliated with fresh attacks across the region, including on Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities \u2013 infuriating the US president.<\/p>\n
Oil and European natural gas prices rose sharply, with Brent crude \u2013 the international benchmark for oil \u2013 up 6% at $114 a barrel. Gas<\/a> prices jumped 23%. Leading Asian stock markets came under pressure, with the Nikkei 225 falling 3.4% in Japan.<\/p>\n The US \u201cknew nothing\u201d of the Israeli attack on South Pars, Trump claimed on social media on Wednesday night. US media reported earlier that the US was aware of the attack. The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>, citing unnamed US officials, that the president approved of it, in a bid to pressure Tehran into unblocking the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Authorities in Abu Dhabi said it had been forced to shut down operations at its Habshan gas facility and Bab field because of Iranian attacks that it called a \u201cdangerous escalation\u201d of the war.<\/p>\n Ras Laffan in Qatar, the site of the world\u2019s largest liquefied natural gas hub, has now suffered \u201cextensive damage\u201d after strikes by Iran, the state-run QatarEnergy giant said. Early on Thursday, QatarEnergy reported \u201csizeable fires\u201d and significant damage at several LNG facilities at the hub. The Qatari interior ministry later said that all fires had been contained.<\/p>\n QatarEnergy facility at Ras Laffan. Photograph: AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The strike on South Pars amounted to the first targeted attacks on Iranian fossil fuel production since the US and Israel launched the conflict, almost three weeks ago.<\/p>\n Qatar, which shares the gasfield with Iran, \u201cwas in no way, shape, or form, involved with it [the attack], nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen\u201d, Trump said, adding that Israel would not attack the gasfield again unless Iran attacked Qatari gas facilities again.<\/p>\n If Tehran chose to retaliate, Trump said: \u201cThe United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.\u201d<\/p>\n south pars map<\/a><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s efforts to deescalate the attacks on energy infrastructure, by threatening to destroy South Pars, did not reassure global markets as concern mounts over the economic impact of the conflict.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia was also targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles on Wednesday. Any trust with Tehran had been shattered, its foreign minister said. \u201cThis pressure from Iran will backfire politically and morally and certainly we reserve the right to take military actions if deemed necessary,\u201d Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a news conference.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry described the Israeli attack on South Pars as \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201cirresponsible\u201d, urging all sides not to target energy facilities. The UAE foreign ministry also described the move as a \u201cdangerous escalation\u201d, warning: \u201cTargeting energy infrastructure poses a direct threat to global energy security.\u201d<\/p>\n The strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil supplies and seaborne gas tankers usually pass, meanwhile remains all but closed. Trump\u2019s efforts to build a multinational naval force to reopen the key waterway have yet to bear fruit<\/a>.<\/p>\n A fire broke out on a vessel near the strait after it was hit by a projectile, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said, citing a report late on Wednesday. The ship was off the coast of the UAE.<\/p>\n Emmanuel Macron, the French president, spoke with Trump and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, emir of Qatar, after Wednesday\u2019s strikes on gas facilities. Calling for a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, Macron said: \u201cCivilian populations and their essential needs, as well as the security of energy supplies, must be protected from military escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n On another day of violence in the Middle East, the Palestinian Red Crescent said three Palestinian women were killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on Wednesday \u2013 the first deadly Iranian strike there, and the first to kill Palestinians since the start of the war.<\/p>\n The European Union meanwhile urged Israel to \u201ccease its operations\u201d in Lebanon, which French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot will visit on Thursday.<\/p>\n Lebanon was drawn into the crisis earlier this month, when Hezbollah fighters launched rockets at Israel. Israel retaliated with strikes that have killed at least 968 people, according to Lebanese authorities, and displaced over a million.<\/p>\n![\"Large](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Large_fire_at_South_Pars_gasfield_after_Israeli_strike_--3f92d9e6-6c91-444f-aaca-3193181a2e9c-1.0.00.jpeg\")
Large fire at South Pars gasfield after Israeli strike <\/p>\n