Israel and Iran attack gas facilities, in a major escalation that rattles markets : NPR
US President Donald Trump walks to the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, DC, as he returns from Dover Air Drive Base in Delaware after attending a dignified switch solemn occasion on March 18, 2026.
Oliver Contreras/AFP through Getty Photos
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Oliver Contreras/AFP through Getty Photos
Iran attacked the world’s largest liquified pure fuel complicated in Qatar, focused a fuel discipline and facility within the United Arab Emirates, fired missiles and launched drones on Saudi Arabia on Thursday following Israel’s bombing of Iran’s South Pars fuel discipline a day earlier.
The assaults on the fuel amenities within the Gulf marked a significant escalation because the struggle with Iran approached its third week, with Iran participating in direct assault on its Gulf neighbors Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait Information Company additionally reported a drone assault, confirmed by Kuwait Petroleum Company, on one of many items in Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, one of many largest within the Center East, on Thursday morning.
The strikes on among the world’s main fuel amenities despatched shockwaves throughout the worldwide power market already reeling from the implications of Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit of the world’s oil provide.
Brent crude oil was above $110 a barrel in Thursday morning buying and selling, a rise of over 50% because the begin of the struggle on Feb. 28.
President Trump mentioned late Wednesday that Israel acted alone when it struck the fuel discipline in Iran. In a Truth Social post Trump mentioned:
“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place within the Center East, has violently lashed out at a significant facility often called South Pars Fuel Area in Iran. A comparatively small part of the entire has been hit. America knew nothing about this specific assault, and the nation of Qatar was under no circumstances, form, or kind, concerned with it, nor did it have any concept that it was going to occur.”
Trump mentioned that Israel wouldn’t assault Iran’s South Pars amenities once more, whereas threatening Iran to halt its assaults on Qatar’s fuel infrastructure or face extreme U.S. strikes on its fuel infrastructure.
“America of America, with or with out the assistance or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the whole South Pars Fuel Area at an quantity and power and energy that Iran has by no means seen or witnessed earlier than,” Trump wrote within the Fact Social publish.
The Iranian assaults drew condemnation from the three Gulf international locations, which known as their focusing on “a harmful escalation.”
“What little belief there was has fully been shattered, has been shattered on a number of ranges,” mentioned Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi Kingdom’s overseas minister on Thursday.
He added, “the persistence that’s being exhibited is just not limitless.”
Qatar says its fuel amenities suffered intensive harm; fuel infrastructure focused in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
This picture exhibits QatarEnergy’s working amenities in Ras Laffan Industrial Metropolis on March 2, 2026. Qatar suspended liquefied pure fuel manufacturing on March 2, inflicting a large leap in costs, after Iranian strikes hit Gulf power amenities in a brand new escalation of the Center East struggle.
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QatarEnergy mentioned Thursday its Ras Laffan gas-to-liquid facility suffered intensive harm from the Iranian strikes a day earlier.
Authorities mentioned a number of of Qatar’s liquefied pure fuel amenities got here below missile assault once more early Thursday, setting them ablaze and inflicting additional harm.
Qatar, one of many world’s largest producers of liquified pure fuel, has needed to halt all fuel manufacturing resulting from Iranian counterattacks within the struggle, disrupting international provides and the manufacturing of fertilizer already.
Qatar expelled Iranian navy attaches in response to the Iranian assaults. In a press release issued on Wednesday, Qatar condemned Iran’s assault on its belongings as “a harmful escalation, a flagrant violation of state sovereignty, and a direct risk to its nationwide safety and regional stability.”
Authorities within the United Arab Emirates mentioned the nation’s Habshan fuel facility and Bab discipline got here below assault from Iran in a single day. Authorities mentioned the missiles towards these websites have been intercepted, however as a result of falling particles, the fuel amenities have been shut down.
In its condemnation of the assaults, UAE’s overseas ministry mentioned it “reserved its full proper to take all mandatory measures to guard its sovereignty and nationwide safety, and to safeguard its nationwide pursuits.”
The strikes on Qatar’s fuel amenities and people on two fuel websites within the United Arab Emirates adopted Israel’s assault on Iran’s South Pars fuel discipline on Wednesday. Qatar mentioned Israel’s assault focused the Iranian facet of the underwater fuel discipline that the 2 international locations share.
An image exhibits a normal view of the section 17-18 of the South Pars fuel discipline amenities within the southern Iranian port city of Assaluyeh on the shore of the Gulf on November 19, 2015.
Atta Kenare/AFP through Getty Photos
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Atta Kenare/AFP through Getty Photos
Previous to the Iranian assault on the Gulf international locations, Qatar’s officers condemned Israel’s strike towards Iranian fuel fields as “a harmful and irresponsible step.”
“Concentrating on power infrastructure constitutes a risk to international power safety, in addition to to the peoples of the area and its atmosphere,” mentioned Majed Al-Ansari, Qatar’s overseas ministry spokesman on X.
