\u2022 Tehran strikes Qatari LNG plant, Saudi and Kuwaiti refineries
\n\u2022 Trump warns of \u2018furious response\u2019 if attacks on Qatar continue
\n\u2022 Rules out troop deployment, but officials say reinforcements under review
\n\u2022 Hegseth sets no timeline for war; White House to seek $200bn more from Congress
\n\u2022 Global energy markets shaken; Brent jumps to $119, gas prices up 35pc
\n\u2022 Riyadh asserts it reserves right to retaliate after refinery drone strike
\n\u2022 Netanyahu says Israel \u2018acted alone\u2019 in striking Iran gas field
\n\u2022 Claims Tehran no longer able to enrich uranium or build missiles<\/p>\n
DOHA: As Washington rushed to arm its Gulf allies with a $16.46 billion military package, Iran issued its starkest warning yet, vowing \u201czero restraint\u201d if its energy infrastructure is targeted again, pushing the Middle East closer to a regional war.<\/p>\n
The developments came after Iranian attacks on the world\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Amid growing fears over the economic damage from the war, US President Donald Trump said there would be no repeat of Israel\u2019s attack on Iran\u2019s key South Pars gas field, but he warned of a furious US response if Tehran did not halt strikes on Qatar.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan\u00adyahu later claimed that Israel had acted unilaterally in striking Iran\u2019s massive South Pars gas field. \u201cIsrael acted alone against the Asaluyeh gas compound\u2026 President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks, and we\u2019re holding out,\u201d he has said at a televised press conference.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Oil markets have already been shaken by Iran\u2019s blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s huge Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas complex in retaliation for the Israeli strike on South Pars on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, QatarEnergy said that the nighttime attack on Ras Laffan, a repeated target since the start of the war on Feb 28, caused \u201cextensive damage\u201d.<\/p>\n
Its CEO told Reuters the Iranian attacks had knocked out a sixth of Qatar\u2019s LNG export capacity, worth $20bn a year, and that repairs would take three to five years.<\/p>\n
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Moham\u00admed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the attack was \u201cclear proof\u201d 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\u2019s Red Sea port of Yanbu, the Saudi defence ministry said. The government reserved the \u201cright to take military actions\u201d in response.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s capital of Manama, according to AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2022 Tehran strikes Qatari LNG plant, Saudi and Kuwaiti refineries \u2022 Trump warns of \u2018furious response\u2019 if attacks on Qatar continue \u2022 Rules out troop deployment, but officials say reinforcements under review \u2022 Hegseth sets no timeline for war; White House to seek $200bn more from Congress \u2022 Global energy markets shaken; Brent jumps to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16939,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16937\/revisions\/16939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}