Dubai | Iran has intensified its attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf, raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through energy markets and the global economy.
The strikes on Thursday, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, sent fuel prices soaring and risked drawing Iran's Arab neighbors directly into the conflict. Global fuel supplies were already under pressure because of Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that, at the request of President Donald Trump, Israel will hold off on any further attacks on Iran's South Pars gas field.
Since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, Iran's top leaders have been killed in airstrikes and the country's military capabilities have been severely degraded. Netanyahu said in a televised address that Iran no longer has the ability to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, although he did not provide evidence.
Still, Iran -- now led by the son of the supreme leader killed in the war's opening salvo -- remains capable of missile and drone attacks targeting its Gulf Arab neighbors and unnerving the global economy dependent on the energy they produce.
Underscoring the danger to ships in the region, a vessel was set ablaze off the United Arab Emirates' coast and another was damaged off Qatar. Efforts to bypass the strait were also under pressure: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea, which the country had hoped to use as an alternative route.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, briefly surged above USD 119 a barrel, up more than 60 per cent since the war started. The European benchmark for natural gas prices also rose sharply and has roughly doubled in the past month.
**Energy infrastructure is targeted around the Gulf Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE denounced the Iranian attacks. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called them a "dangerous escalation." But Iran showed no signs of backing down. Saudi Arabia said its SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu was hit. Saudi Arabia had begun pumping large volumes of oil west toward the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.
Qatar, a key source of natural gas for world markets, said Iranian missiles caused extensive damage to the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility, where production had already been halted after earlier attacks. That could delay Qatar's ability to get supplies to the market even after the war ends.
Two oil refineries in Kuwait and gas operations in Abu Dhabi also were targeted by Iran, authorities said.
Millions of people fled to shelters in Israel as sirens warning of Iranian missiles sounded in the central part of the country as well as Jerusalem and areas nearby, including the West Bank.
**Hegseth says more Iranian leaders could be targeted Trump and Netanyahu have cited various war objectives, including degrading Iran's missile capabilities and its nuclear program, and killing its senior leaders.
At Thursday's news conference, Netanyahu said: "Iran's air defenses have been rendered useless, their navy is lying at the bottom of the sea. ... Their air force is nearly destroyed." He said he hopes the Iranian people will rise up against the Islamic Republic that has ruled for nearly a half-century, but conceded "it's too early" to say whether that will happen. There's been no sign of any organised opposition since the war began, after Iranian authorities crushed mass protests in January.
The prime minister's comments to foreign journalists came amid difficult days for Trump and Netanyahu, with a top US intelligence official resigning and claiming Israel pushed Trump into the war, and Israel's attacks on South Pars, which led to Iran's retaliatory strikes on the region's oil and gas fields.
"I misled no one," Netanyahu said. "And I didn't have to convince President Trump about the need to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear programme." Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth implied more Iranian leaders could be targeted, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij, a powerful internal security force whose leader was killed by Israel this week.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that US forces were attacking deeper into Iranian territory, with warplanes hunting Iranian boats in the strait and helicopters striking Iranian drones. Caine said the US. military has also dropped 5,000-pound bombs on underground weapons-storage facilities.
Iran's state TV, quoting a Revolutionary Guard statement, said the country's air defense system hit an F-35 fighter jet. US Central Command said an F-35 made an emergency landing after flying a combat mission over Iran. A command spokesman, Capt. Tim Hawkins, said the aircraft landed safely, the pilot was in "stable" condition and the incident was under investigation.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, sent the White House a request for USD 200 billion in additional funds to cover the war's rising cost, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private information.
**Iran's strikes retaliated for Israeli attack on critical gas field Iran stepped up its attacks on Gulf energy facilities after Israel hit South Pars, the Iranian part of the world's largest gas field, located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly with Qatar.
With some 80 per cent of power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, according to the International Energy Agency, the attack threatens the country's electricity supplies. (AP)
