Trump Warns Israel And Iran Following Major War Escalation

Israel attacked a major Iranian facility and Iran countered. Trump warned both sides.

New Phase of the Iran War

The Wall Street Journal reports Escalating Attacks on Gulf Energy Assets Plunge Iran War Into New Phase

Escalating attacks on Persian Gulf oil-and-gas infrastructure are sending the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran into a dangerous new phase that threatens to worsen the crisis over global energy supplies.
Israel struck at the crown jewel of Iran’s energy industry on Wednesday—the giant South Pars gas field that Iran shares with Qatar and is by far the largest in the world. Iran retaliated with two attacks on a major gas hub in Qatar just across the Gulf and a missile barrage fired at the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with debris landing near a refinery.
Israel and Iran had already hit energy facilities throughout the nearly three-week-old war, but Wednesday’s attacks struck some of the world’s most important hubs and raised the prospect of tit-for-tat volleys against oil-and-gas facilities. Already, the conflict has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint between the Persian Gulf and the wider world that carries about 20% of the global oil and liquefied-natural gas supply during normal times.
The U.S., which had previously pledged to rein in attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure, was informed of the plan ahead of time and had no issues with it, American and Israeli officials said Wednesday.
President Trump approved of the strike, U.S. officials said, to pressure Iran to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. The officials said Trump believed Tehran received the message and wants to refrain from further strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure.
On Wednesday night, Trump denied that the U.S. knew in advance about Israel’s attack on South Pars. “The United States knew nothing about this particular attack” on South Pars, Trump said.
“Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility,” he said on social media, referring to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Qatar’s liquefied-natural gas hub that was hit once on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning local time. “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL,” Trump added.
The president went on to say that if Iran strikes Qatar’s gas hub again, the U.S. “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.”
Iran’s missile attack later Wednesday on Ras Laffan, where Qatar has facilities for gas pumped from its side of the giant field, left extensive damage and set fires after four missiles were intercepted and one got through.
Benchmark Brent oil futures shot up to close to $110 a barrel, and European gas prices surged 6% in the hours following the news. Traders were pricing in the risk that Iran could keep attacking Gulf energy infrastructure and worsen a supply crisis that has already removed millions of barrels of oil from global supply.
“It opens the door to more infrastructure attacks in the region,” said Neil Crosby of the Geneva-based market-intelligence company Sparta Commodities.

There is no reason to believe the world’s biggest liar on who knew what when. But Trump’s threat to escalate the war further is believable.

Trump on the Escalation

Truth Social: Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility. NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar – In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, 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. I do 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, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

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Financial Times

Iran hit the site of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facility in Qatar with a ballistic missile, inflicting “extensive damage” in retaliation for an attack on the Islamic republic’s South Pars gasfield. The attack on Wednesday marks a significant escalation in the Middle East war and threatens major repercussions for global energy markets. Qatar is the second-largest exporter of LNG in the world, and the biggest supplier to Asia. Qatar’s defence ministry said on X that Iran had fired five ballistic missiles, with four intercepted and one hitting Ras Laffan, a huge industrial complex that is home to state-owned QatarEnergy’s LNG plants and a fuel refinery. It is also the location of Shell’s $18bn Pearl GTL plant, which turns gas into chemical feedstocks and fuel.
Analysts said the attack had the potential to cause a “lasting global gas shortage” depending on the scale of the damage, as Ras Laffan is normally responsible for about a fifth of global LNG supplies.
“Even when the war ends, the impact on supply could last months or even years as repairs are undertaken,” said Saul Kavonic, energy analyst at MST Financial.

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Ras Laffan in Qatar on Fire

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A Word About Fertilizer

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UAE Gas Production is Zero

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Promises Made, Promises Obliterated

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Summation

The war that is over has a major escalation. This damage will not be fixed for a long time.