• Tehran strikes Qatari LNG plant, Saudi and Kuwaiti refineries
• Trump warns of ‘furious response’ if attacks on Qatar continue
• Rules out troop deployment, but officials say reinforcements under review
• Hegseth sets no timeline for war; White House to seek $200bn more from Congress
• Global energy markets shaken; Brent jumps to $119, gas prices up 35pc
• Riyadh asserts it reserves right to retaliate after refinery drone strike
• Netanyahu says Israel ‘acted alone’ in striking Iran gas field
• Claims Tehran no longer able to enrich uranium or build missiles
DOHA: As Washington rushed to arm its Gulf allies with a $16.46 billion military package, Iran issued its starkest warning yet, vowing “zero restraint” if its energy infrastructure is targeted again, pushing the Middle East closer to a regional war.
The developments came after Iranian attacks on the world’s largest LNG plant in Qatar and refineries in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait sent shock waves through energy markets on Thursday, with the United States stressing that there was no deadline to end the Middle East war.
Amid growing fears over the economic damage from the war, US President Donald Trump said there would be no repeat of Israel’s attack on Iran’s key South Pars gas field, but he warned of a furious US response if Tehran did not halt strikes on Qatar.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later claimed that Israel had acted unilaterally in striking Iran’s massive South Pars gas field. “Israel acted alone against the Asaluyeh gas compound… President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks, and we’re holding out,” he has said at a televised press conference.
He also claimed in a news conference that Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of US-Israeli air attacks, Reuters reported.
Oil markets have already been shaken by Iran’s blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.
But the international benchmark Brent surged 10 per cent to $119 a barrel before falling back to $112, while European gas prices rose 35pc, after Iranian missiles hit Qatar’s huge Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas complex in retaliation for the Israeli strike on South Pars on Wednesday.
Interestingly, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington could consider lifting sanctions on Iranian oil already in transit. Talking to Fox Business, he added that the US government could also release more oil from its strategic reserves to help ease price pressure.
Meanwhile, QatarEnergy said that the nighttime attack on Ras Laffan, a repeated target since the start of the war on Feb 28, caused “extensive damage”.
Its CEO told Reuters the Iranian attacks had knocked out a sixth of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, worth $20bn a year, and that repairs would take three to five years.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the attack was “clear proof” that Iran was going past its vow to only target US interests in the Gulf. And attacks blamed on Iran spread. A drone crashed into the Samref refinery in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, the Saudi defence ministry said. The government reserved the “right to take military actions” in response.
In Kuwait, drone attacks sparked fires at the Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries, which have a combined capacity of 800,000 barrels per day. Blasts were also heard in Bahrain’s capital of Manama, according to AFP.
