Summary
Iran widened attacks on major energy facilities across the Middle East, a move that Gulf Arab states warned could threaten to drag them into direct combat as the war between Iran and Israel continued into its third week.
The expansion came after Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, and reportedly attacked what the Associated Press described as the world’s largest natural gas field in Iran, South Pars, as pressure mounted on the region’s energy lifeblood. The Gulf governments’ warnings focused on the direct threat to their own energy operations rather than to battlefields farther from their territory.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates denounced the Iranian strikes that targeted their natural gas holdings. Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said assaults on the kingdom meant “what little trust there was before has completely been shattered.”
At the same time, it remained unclear what military steps the Gulf states might take. The AP reported that they had sought not to enter combat alongside the United States and Israel, while their bases, civilian sites and energy operations were under attack.
Iran also condemned the reported South Pars attack and said it would not be a turning point for Tehran. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world,” after Tehran condemned the strike on South Pars.
In Washington, President Donald Trump said Israel would not attack South Pars again, but he warned that escalation could bring direct U.S. retaliation. On social media, Trump said he did not want to authorize “this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran” and warned that if Iran kept striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the U.S. would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.
The broader regional pattern increasingly centered on energy assets and shipping routes. The AP reported that oil prices surged again, rising about 5% to more than $108 a barrel on international markets, as Iran intensified efforts that squeezed the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil travels.
In the weeks before the new warnings, Israel also struck other senior Iranian figures, according to the AP. A day earlier, Israel killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani.
The latest attacks were reported to extend beyond the gas facilities of Iran’s Gulf neighbors. The AP said Iran retaliated with missile strikes, including attacks on Israel and on regional targets in the Persian Gulf, and it reported the first fatalities in the occupied West Bank during the Iran war. The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least three people were killed in the town of Beit Awa and that at least 13 others were injured, after earlier authorities revised the number of deaths as crews assessed the scene.
Israel’s military told the Associated Press that an Iranian missile—not shrapnel from an interception—hit in the West Bank. Officials described it as a cluster munition that got past Israel’s air defense system, as the region’s energy assets also came under more strain.
In Qatar, Qatar Energy said on X that a missile hit the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility, sparking a fire and causing “extensive” damage before it was extinguished. Qatar Energy said production had already been halted there due to earlier attacks, and it added that additional missile strikes damaged more liquefied natural gas sites, causing “sizable fires and extensive further damage,” while reporting no injuries.
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities reported an attack on gas infrastructure including the Habshan gas facility and the Bab field. The UAE government described the strikes as a “dangerous escalation” in the Islamic Republic’s war against Israel and the United States, and it said the gas operations had been shut down after interceptions over the sites.
The AP also reported that an attack set a ship ablaze early Thursday off the UAE coast. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a vessel near Khor Fakkan was hit by an unknown projectile that resulted in a fire onboard, and it said more than 20 vessels had been attacked during the Iran war as Tehran sought to affect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.