Trump Wants Energy Sites Spared from Attacks

US President Donald Trump sought to stop attacks on energy facilities in the Middle East after Israel and Iran struck key targets, fueling concern that a prolonged war will cause lasting damage to oil and gas infrastructure.

Iran unleashed waves of retaliatory strikes on projects in Arab countries across the Persian Gulf overnight into Thursday after its prized South Pars gas field – part of the world’s largest gas field shared with Qatar – came under Israeli fire, jolting markets.

Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City – home to the world’s largest export plant for liquefied natural gas – suffered “extensive damage” after an Iranian missile strike sparked a fire.

Trump said in a social media post that neither the US nor Qatar was involved in the Israeli operation targeting the Iranian field, calling on the Islamic Republic to act with restraint.

“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL,” Trump said on Truth Social. If Iran continues its strikes on Qatar’s LNG assets, the US “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.”

The president’s call for de-escalation followed similar attacks on energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE said it shut the Habshan gas facility after intercepting Iranian missiles targeting the plant and the Bab oil field.

Saudi Arabia said it shot down ballistic missiles fired toward the capital, Riyadh, and thwarted a drone attack on a gas facility in the Eastern Province. Another drone fell on the country’s Samref refinery where the damage was being assessed, the kingdom said.

Two oil refineries in Kuwait were struck by drones that caused fires, according to Kuwait Petroleum Corp. A limited fire at an operational unit of the Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery was contained and there was a blaze at the Mina Abdullah refinery from a projectile on Thursday, it said.

The strikes followed a warning from Tehran hours earlier that energy facilities in Gulf countries would be considered “legitimate targets” after the Israeli attacks on South Pars, a core part of Iran’s energy infrastructure. Iraq reported a loss of power generation after Iran halted gas supplies from the project.

Now in its 20th day, the war has claimed more than 4,100 lives across the region and the risk of lasting damage to energy infrastructure and supply in one of the world’s most important producing regions is rising. 

The Strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint for about a fifth of global oil and LNG flows – is effectively closed, pushing prices higher. The fallout is spreading globally, with fuel, shipping and household costs already rising.

Brent oil rose 5 percent to trade near $113 a barrel on Thursday, bringing its advance since the beginning of the war to more than 55 percent. Global equities retreated for a second day, while the yield on Treasuries continued to rise after the securities sold off across the curve on Wednesday. 

Trump temporarily waived a century-old shipping mandate to lower the cost of transporting energy goods around the US. Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials plan to meet with oil executives Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Countries continue to vie for access and control in the Strait of Hormuz. The US said it dropped 5,000-pound bunker-buster munitions on Iranian missile sites near the waterway late Tuesday. Russia said it planned to provide naval convoys to protect merchant ships. 

Iran has meanwhile been moving its own oil through the strait at close to prewar levels. Crude loadings at Kharg Island also appear to be continuing undisturbed despite US strikes on the export hub. Trump has suggested he is reluctant to carry out direct attacks on sites that would harm global supply.

The attack on South Pars signals a shift toward degrading Iran’s economic infrastructure and curbing its ability to fight, according to Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.

“South Pars is central to Iran’s gas supply and, by extension, to electricity generation and industrial activity,” Azizi said by email. “Even limited or temporary disruptions can translate into power shortages, industrial slowdowns, and broader economic strain.”

The Israel Defense Forces said its warplanes had also struck targets in northern Iran for the first time. 

In parallel with the war in Iran, Israel has stepped up an offensive in Lebanon, where it’s fighting Hezbollah, a militia that’s backed by Tehran. Israeli strikes in the country have killed 968 people, according to the Lebanese government.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says at least 3,134 people have died in Iran. Dozens of others have been killed in the rest of the Middle East, while the US has lost 13 military personnel.

The war began with the joint US-Israeli bombing of Iran on Feb. 28. Trump has since said that he started the war to disarm a potent nuclear threat, claiming Tehran was just two weeks away from acquiring a weapon. Iran has denied pursuing atomic weapons, and nuclear experts mostly disagree it could have built weapons that quickly.

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday scrapped a mention in congressional testimony that Iran hasn’t resumed uranium enrichment since American strikes destroyed its facilities last year. 

Gabbard, who Trump appointed to lead the government’s 18 spy agencies, declined several times in a Senate hearing to say whether she thought Iran represented an “imminent nuclear threat,” as the White House has claimed.

US gasoline prices have soared in recent weeks, rising to around $3.84 a gallon on Wednesday, according to the American Automobile Association. That’s the highest level in more than two years and is piling pressure on the administration before the November midterm elections.

“Gas prices are up and we know they’re up, and we know that people are hurting because of it and we’re doing everything that we can to ensure that they stay lower,” Vance said, calling the spike “a temporary blip.”