Trump’s claim of not knowing about the attack on Iranian gas field comes under question
Washington: Donald Trump has distanced himself from an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, while also issuing fresh threats, as tit-for-tat strikes on energy infrastructure escalate the Middle East conflict and propel oil prices even higher.
Iran’s South Pars offshore gas field – the Iranian sector of the world’s largest natural gas reserve – came under attack on Wednesday, prompting the regime in Tehran to retaliate by firing missiles at Qatari liquified natural gas sites and Israel.
As countries worldwide, including Australia, grapple with spiking oil prices, the attacks sent the price of Brent Crude above $US111 ($157) a barrel for the first time during the nearly three-week-old war.
Iran issued a list of retaliatory targets after the Israeli strike, and hit Qatar’s core LNG processing operation at Ras Laffan, while also firing missiles at the United Arab Emirates’ Habshan gas facilities and Bab oil field. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted missiles headed for Riyadh and drones attempting to attack a gas facility.
Trump, who has made a point of largely sparing Iran’s energy infrastructure from US bombing, said the US “knew nothing” about Israel’s attack at South Pars. Qatar was also not involved and had no idea it was going to happen, Trump added.
“Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack,” Trump said on social media on Wednesday night (Washington time).
Trump promised that “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL” on that particular facility, unless Iran took further retaliatory action against Qatar.
In that case, he said, the US would “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” – with or without Israel’s help or consent.
“I do not want to authorise this level of violence and destruction because of the long-term implications that it will have on the future of Iran,” Trump said.
However, several US media outlets reported the US did know about Israel’s plan to attack South Pars, and even approved it. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Trump knew about and supported the attack because it would send a message to Tehran about blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
The Associated Press (AP) also reported that the US was informed of the plans to strike the massive gas field, citing a person familiar with the matter who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Qatar said on Thursday afternoon (Australian time) that Iranian missiles had targeted more of its liquefied natural gas sites, “causing sizable fires and extensive further damage”.
Iran has targeted the US’s Gulf allies throughout the war, though the vast majority of the missiles and drones it fired were intercepted and destroyed.
Trump has repeatedly said he is sparing Iran’s energy infrastructure in the campaign, and Israel’s decision to target the world’s largest natural gas deposit could represent a fracture over strategy between the two allies.
The US president said in his social media post that Israel had “lashed out violently” by attacking the South Pars facility, though he argued it was “out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East”.
Israel is also eliminating senior Iranian leaders, with recent strikes killing top security official Ali Larijani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Basij force and Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib.
Qatar strongly denounced Iran’s retaliatory strikes, calling them “a dangerous escalation” and flagrant violation of Qatari sovereignty. Qatar “notes that the Iranian side persists in targeting it and neighbouring countries”, the foreign ministry said, despite Qatar distancing itself from the war from the outset.
Earlier, Majed Al Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, also condemned Israel for targeting the gas field – which Iran shares with Qatar – calling it a “dangerous and irresponsible step”.
“Targeting energy infrastructure constitutes a threat to global energy security, to the peoples of the region, and to its environment,” he said.
Gulf Arab countries on Thursday renewed their call for Iran to halt attacks on its neighbours.
A statement by the nations at a regional summit denounced “these deliberate Iranian attacks using ballistic missiles and drones, which targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure, including oil facilities, desalination plants, airports, residential buildings, and diplomatic missions.”
The nations represented at the summit were Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The escalating attacks on energy infrastructure come as surging prices pose a growing problem for governments around the world – including the US, despite its reduced reliance on imports.
Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a rally in the rust belt state of Michigan, acknowledged petrol prices were a problem but promised Americans the effects would be temporary.
“Gas prices are up, and we know they’re up, and we know people are hurting because of it,” he said.
“It’s not going to last forever … But in the meantime, we got a problem, we know that we have a problem, we’re doing everything we can to address it. We got a rough road ahead of us for the next few weeks, but it’s temporary.”
In Washington, officials faced scrutiny at a congressional hearing on the war – including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who refused to say whether the US’s vast intelligence apparatus believed that Iran posed an “imminent nuclear threat” to the US before the war.
“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and isn’t an imminent threat – that is up to the president,” Gabbard told Democratic senator Jon Ossoff.
“False,” Ossoff replied. “It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States.”
With Reuters, AP
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.