In Brief
- South Pars supplies around 80 per cent of Iran’s gas, making the strike a direct hit on the country’s electricity and heating capacity.
- Iran said the country’s top intelligence official Esmail Khatib has been killed by Israel.
A significant escalation in the ongoing conflict between the United States and Israel erupted overnight, as Iran’s expansive Pars gas field came under attack. This development has prompted Tehran to declare its intention to retaliate by targeting oil and gas facilities throughout the Gulf region.
In the wake of the attack, oil prices surged dramatically. This conflict has already disrupted shipping operations in one of the world’s most crucial energy-producing areas, and the latest events threaten to inflict lasting damage on the region’s infrastructure.
Following the strike, the benchmark Brent crude prices experienced a notable increase of approximately 5%, climbing above $108 per barrel. Meanwhile, stock markets reacted negatively, trending downward.
The Pars gas field represents Iran’s portion of the world’s largest natural gas reserve, a resource it shares with Qatar, stretching across the Gulf. According to Iran’s Fars news agency, the attack targeted gas tanks and parts of a refinery, prompting the evacuation of workers to safety while emergency teams endeavored to extinguish a resulting fire. State media later confirmed that the fire was brought under control.
Reports in Israeli media suggest that the attack was orchestrated by Israel, allegedly with the backing of the United States, although neither nation has officially claimed responsibility for the incident.
The attack was widely reported in Israeli media to have been carried out by Israel with US consent, though neither country acknowledged immediate responsibility.
Qatar, a close US ally which hosts the largest US airbase in the region, blamed the attack on Israel without mentioning any US role. The Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson called it a “dangerous and irresponsible” escalation that put global energy security at risk. The UAE also denounced the attack.
Following the attack, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian warned of the risk of “uncontrollable consequences”.
“This will complicate the situation and could have uncontrollable consequences, the scope of which could engulf the entire world,” he wrote on X, adding that such attacks “will yield nothing” for Iran’s foes the US and Israel.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf added in a separate post on X that after the attacks on energy facilities “an eye-for-an-eye sum is in effect, and a new level of confrontation has begun”.
Iran listed an array of prominent regional oil and gas targets belonging to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, which it said were now “direct and legitimate targets” and should be evacuated at once before it struck them in the coming hours.
Previously during nearly three weeks of war, the US and Israel had held back from targeting Iran’s energy production facilities in the Gulf, averting Iranian retaliation against the oil and gas industries of its neighbours.
Iran has already effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, which handles 20 per cent of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply, but consuming nations are hoping the disruption will prove short-lived as long as production infrastructure is spared.
Iran’s warning was directed at Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the UAE’s Al Hosn Gas Field, and Qatar’s Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan Refinery.
Israel says it has killed Iran’s intelligence chief
Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister Esmail Khatib on Wednesday (local time), a day after killing powerful security chief Ali Larijani.
“No one in Iran has immunity and everyone is in the crosshairs,” said defence minister Israel Katz.
He and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had authorised the Israeli military “to target any senior Iranian official for whom an intelligence and operational opportunity arises, without the need for additional approval”, Katz said.
It appeared to be the first time Israel has publicly stated that it would let the military target enemy officials without seeking special permission from political leaders.
In Tehran, thousands of people appeared in the streets for a funeral for Larijani and other slain figures. The crowd waved Iranian flags and carried portraits of the dead as a eulogist sang: “Martyrs are leading the way, they’ve become more alive, burning with love.”
Iran retaliated for the killing of Larijani by firing missiles at Israel, which Israeli authorities said killed two people near Tel Aviv. Tehran said it fired overnight on Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba in Israel, and at US bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The Israeli military also hit central Beirut, destroying apartment buildings in some of the most intense airstrikes on the Lebanese capital for decades, on Israel’s other front in the war it launched with the US against Iran.
US-based Iran human rights group HRANA said on Monday that an estimated 3,000-plus people had been killed in Iran since the US-Israeli attacks began on 28 February. Authorities in Lebanon say 900 people have been killed there and 800,000 forced to flee their homes.
Iran’s retaliatory attacks have killed people in Iraq and across the Gulf states. Fourteen have been killed in Israel.
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