Trump seeks de-escalation after Iran, Israel strike gas hubs

President Donald Trump pressed for a de-escalation of attacks on Middle East energy assets after Iranian and Israeli strikes on major gas hubs jolted global markets.

Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City — the complex home to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export plant — suffered “extensive damage” after an Iranian attack that sparked a fire, officials said. Israel carried out a strike on South Pars, Trump said. The gas field is a core part of Iran’s energy infrastructure.

Trump said in a social media post that the US wasn’t involved in the South Pars attack, adding that Israel would refrain from further strikes on the site. He said any additional attacks by Iran on Qatar’s LNG facilities would prompt the US to “massively blow up the entirety” of the South Pars field. Oil pared gains and US stock-index futures rose after his comments.

The strikes followed a warning from Tehran hours earlier that energy facilities in Gulf countries would be considered “legitimate targets.” Facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were on a list of sites at risk of Iranian airstrikes, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Oil prices have surged about 50% since the start of the war, which has choked off the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and cut oil and gas production across the Middle East.

The strikes on energy assets have complicated US efforts to stabilize markets and contain the impact on consumers. Trump temporarily waived a century-old shipping mandate to lower the cost of transporting energy goods around the US. Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials plan to meet with oil executives Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump has also expressed frustration with countries rejecting his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway for oil shipments in the Middle East, which remains largely impassable.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure would “yield nothing” for the US, Israel and their supporters. “This will complicate the situation & could have uncontrollable consequences, the scope of which could engulf the entire world.”

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Iraq reported a loss of power generation after Iran halted gas supplies — the latest example of how other Middle East countries are becoming embroiled in the 19-day conflict.

Trump sought to distance the US from the South Pars strike, saying his country “knew nothing about this particular attack” by Israel, adding only a small section had been hit. The US was aware of the operation but didn’t participate, a person familiar with the matter said.

Anwar Gargash, a top adviser to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, signaled that the UAE may be willing to help secure the strait.

Israeli warplanes also struck targets in northern Iran for the first time, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Countries continue to vie for access and control in the Strait of Hormuz. The US said it dropped 5,000-pound bunker-buster munitions on Iranian missile sites near the waterway late Tuesday. Russia said it planned to provide naval convoys to protect merchant ships.

Iran has been moving its own oil through the strait at close to prewar levels. Crude loadings at Kharg Island also appear to be continuing undisturbed despite US strikes on the export hub. Trump has suggested that he is reluctant to carry out direct attacks on sites that would harm global supply.

Iran set a massive natural gas field in the UAE ablaze this week as it stepped up its retaliation.

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Israel’s targeting of the South Pars field “is a dangerous and irresponsible step,” Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said in a post on X.

The South Pars attack signals a shift toward degrading Iran’s economic infrastructure and curbing its ability to fight, according to Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.

“South Pars is central to Iran’s gas supply and, by extension, to electricity generation and industrial activity,” Azizi said by email. “Even limited or temporary disruptions can translate into power shortages, industrial slowdowns, and broader economic strain.”

Crowds at a joint funeral for Ali Larijani, Gholam Soleimani and IRIS Dena frigate sailors in Tehran, on March 18. Photographer: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

There were other signs Wednesday that the war was intensifying. Iran launched fresh waves of missiles and drones at the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait after confirming the assassination of its security chief, Ali Larijani. It also struck Tel Aviv, killing two people. Israel and the US maintained their bombardment of Iran.

Tehran’s military vowed to avenge the death of Larijani as well as that of Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary unit, which maintains internal security in Iran. Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib was also killed.

Kuwait announced more arrests involving a group that it said was affiliated with Hezbollah, adding that it had foiled a plot to target vital facilities there.

In parallel with the war in Iran, Israel has stepped up an offensive in Lebanon, where it’s fighting Hezbollah, which is backed by Tehran. Israeli strikes in the country have killed more than 900 people, according to the Lebanese government.

That brings the war’s death toll to more than 4,000, with more than three quarters of the fatalities in Iran. Dozens of others were killed in the rest of the Middle East, while the US has lost 13 military personnel.

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Iranians set fire to US and Israel flags in Tehran on March 17. Source: Getty Images

Trump reiterated Tuesday that he started the war to disarm a potent nuclear threat, claiming Tehran was just two weeks away from acquiring a weapon. Iran has denied pursuing atomic weapons, and nuclear experts mostly disagree it could have built weapons that quickly.

US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday scrapped a mention in congressional testimony that Iran hasn’t resumed uranium enrichment since US strikes destroyed its facilities last year.

Gabbard, who Trump appointed to lead the government’s 18 spy agencies, declined several times in a Senate hearing to say whether she thought Iran represented an “imminent nuclear threat,” as the White House has claimed.

US gasoline prices, meanwhile, have soared in recent weeks, rising to around $3.84 a gallon on Wednesday, according to the American Automobile Association. That’s the highest level in more than two years and is piling pressure on the administration before the November midterm elections.

“Gas prices are up and we know they’re up, and we know that people are hurting because of it and we’re doing everything that we can to ensure that they stay lower,” Vance said, calling the spike “a temporary blip.”

Retired US Army General David Petraeus, who commanded missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Economic Club of New York that Iran has “a very resilient regime” with about a million armed men to keep up the fight, which muddies any calculation on when the conflict could end.

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