New Delhi: In a major escalation of the war in Middle East, Israel attacked the South Pars Gas field, an important gas facility, in Iran on Wednesday night triggering a retaliatory strike by Iran on a major LNG facility in Qatar.
Iran launched missile and drone attacks against energy hubs in neighbouring countries, including Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial area, causing “extensive damage” to LNG facilities there, media reports said.
US President Donald Trump while confirming the Israeli strike on the South Pars Gas field, said 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.
Trump said on his social media platform that a relatively small section of the whole has been hit.
Surprisingly, Trump said the United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.
Trump said that 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 assured that ‘NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL’ pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field.
He, however, warned that unless Iran ‘unwisely’ decides to attack a ‘very innocent,’ in this case, Qatar, the United States, 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 authorise 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,’ Trump warned.
The Pars Gas field, the largest gas field in the world, is located off the coast of southern Iran’s Bushehr province.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted the country’s Ministry of Petroleum as saying that a number of facilities were damaged but no casualties were immediately reported.
Iranian state media also reported that a fire at the gas field was under control.
Quoting sources, Israeli media reported that the country’s air force carried out the attack.
The strike marked a major escalation by shifting from military to critical energy infrastructure.
The South Pars field (shared with Qatar, where it is known as the North Field) is the world’s largest natural gas field. It provides roughly 70–75 per cent of Iran’s total gas production. Natural gas from this field fuels approximately 80 per cent of Iran’s national power grid. It is the primary source of feedstock for Iran’s massive petrochemical and gasoline production industries.
Under heavy sanctions, the field is an essential “energy lifeline” for domestic heating, cooking, and industrial operations. While most of Iran’s share is for domestic use, any disruption causes immediate surges in global energy prices due to its shared nature with Qatar, a top global LNG exporter.
The attack has had immediate regional and global repercussions. Initial reports indicate fires at processing facilities near Asaluyeh and the suspension of at least one offshore platform producing 12 million cubic metres per day.
