By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Wednesday the attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field was carried out by Israel, and the U.S. and Qatar were not involved in it.
Trump also said Israel would not make any more attacks on Iranian facilities in South Pars unless Iran attacked Qatar, warning that the U.S. would attack those facilities if Iran acted against Doha.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the South Pars attack. According to the Wall Street Journal and Axios, Trump knew of Israel’s plan to attack the Iranian part of the world’s largest natural gas deposit in advance and supported it. Iran shares the South Pars field with Qatar, a close U.S. ally.
Iran had said earlier that Israel struck its facilities in South Pars on Wednesday in a major escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that sent oil prices shooting higher.
Tehran retaliated by promising attacks on oil and gas targets throughout the Gulf, firing missiles at Saudi Arabia and also hitting Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, an energy-industry hub.
Doha rebuked Israel for a “dangerous and irresponsible” attack on Iran’s South Pars facilities, and condemned Iran for what it called “a flagrant breach” of international law, expelling two senior Iranian diplomats.
Trump wrote on social media that Iran “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.”
The U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28. The attacks have killed thousands in Iran, including its supreme leader and security chief.
Tehran has responded with its own attacks against Israel and Gulf countries that host U.S. military bases. The war has shaken markets and caused unprecedented disruption to oil supplies fuelling a surge in prices.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kate Mayberry)
