Iran intensifies attacks on Gulf energy sites after Israel struck key gas field

Iran intensified its attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf on Thursday, raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy.

The strikes, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, sent fuel prices soaring and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbours directly into the conflict.

Global fuel supplies were already under pressure because of Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that, at the request of US President Donald Trump, Israel will hold off on any further attacks on the Iranian gas field.

Since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, Iran’s top leaders have been killed in air strikes and the country’s military capabilities have been severely degraded.

Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address that Iran no longer has the ability to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, although he did not provide evidence.

Still, Iran — now led by the son of the supreme leader killed in the war’s opening salvo — remains capable of missile and drone attacks rattling its Gulf Arab neighbours and a global economy dependent on the energy they produce.

Underscoring the danger to ships in the region, a vessel was set ablaze off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and another damaged off Qatar.

Efforts to bypass the Strait of Hormuz were also under pressure: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea, which the country had been hoping to use as an alternative exit route.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, briefly surged above 119 dollars a barrel, up more than 60% since Israel and the United States started the war.

The European benchmark for natural gas prices also rose sharply and has roughly doubled in the past month.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE denounced the Iranian attacks. Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit called them a “dangerous escalation”.

But Iran showed no signs of backing down. Saudi Arabia said its Samref refinery in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu was hit. Saudi Arabia had begun pumping large volumes of oil west toward the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

Qatar, a key source of natural gas for world markets, said extensive damage was caused by Iranian missiles hitting the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility, where production had already been halted after earlier attacks.

Damage to the facility could delay Qatar’s ability to get supplies to the market even after the war ends.

Two oil refineries in Kuwait and gas operations in Abu Dhabi also were targeted by Iran, local authorities said.

In Israel, more than a half a dozen waves of Iranian attacks targeting large parts of the country sent millions of people to shelters. The strikes caused damage to buildings but no significant casualties were reported.

After the latest Iranian barrage, Israeli energy minister Eli Cohen said the electricity grid in northern Israel sustained some damage. He said crews had restored electricity to some areas and were working to restore it in others.

Israeli media showed images of black smoke rising from an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa; Cohen said the refinery damage was minor.

The Trump administration has cited various war objectives, including degrading Iran’s missile capabilities and its nuclear programme. Killing senior leaders has also been a priority for the US and Israel.

In a televised address, Mr Netanyahu said “Iran’s air defences have been rendered useless, their navy is lying at the bottom of the sea… their air force is nearly destroyed”.

The Israeli leader said he hopes the Iranian people will rise up against the Islamic Republic that has ruled for nearly half a century, but he conceded “it’s too early” to say whether that will happen.

There has been no sign of such an uprising since the war began, after Iranian authorities crushed mass protests in January.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday implied that more leaders could be targeted, referring specifically to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij force, a powerful internal security unit whose leader was killed by Israel earlier this week.

“The last job anyone in the world wants right now, senior leader for the IRGC or Basij, temp jobs, all of them,” Mr Hegseth said.

General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that US forces continue to attack deeper into Iranian territory, with warplanes hunting Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz and helicopters striking Iranian drones.

Gen Caine said the US military has also dropped 5,000-pound bombs on underground weapon-storage facilities.

Iran’s state TV, quoting a Revolutionary Guard statement, said the country’s air defence system hit an F-35 fighter jet.

US Central Command said an F-35 fighter jet was forced to make an emergency landing after flying a combat mission over Iran. A spokesman for the command, Capt Tim Hawkins, said the aircraft landed safely, the pilot was in a “stable” condition and the incident was under investigation.

In a sign of the Iran war’s rising price tag, the Pentagon is seeking 200 billion dollars in additional funds, a senior administration official said.

The department sent the request to the White House, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private information.

Iran stepped up its attacks on Gulf energy facilities after Israel hit South Pars, the Iranian part of the world’s largest gas field, which is located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly with Qatar.

With some 80% of all power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, according to the International Energy Agency, the attack directly threatens the country’s electricity supplies.

Natural gas is also used to supply household heating and cooking across the Islamic Republic.

Iran condemned the strike on South Pars, with President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world”.

In Washington, President Trump said that Israel would not attack South Pars again.

But he warned on social media that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the US would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.

Asked later about the possibility of US ground troops being deployed to Iran, Mr Trump responded: “No. I’m not putting troops anywhere.”

More than 1,300 people in Iran have been killed during the war. Israeli strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon have displaced more than one million people — roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 1,000 people have been killed.

Israel says it has killed more than 500 Hezbollah militants.

In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in the occupied West Bank overnight by an Iranian missile strike, according to officials.

At least 13 US military members have been killed.

Iran announced the execution of three men detained in January’s nationwide protests, the first such sentences known to have been carried out, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.