Continued Iranian attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Persian Gulf on Thursday intensified the war's effects on global energy supplies, as President Trump chastised Israel for attacking a key Iranian gas field, and other nations expressed growing fears that the conflict was spiraling out of control.
Saudi Arabia said it could respond with force if Iran continues to attack facilities in the kingdom, and the price of oil soared once again.
Trump said Israel acted “out of anger” and without the knowledge of the United States, when it attacked the “extremely important and valuable” South Pars field, the largest natural gas field in the world. Writing on social media, Trump said “There WILL BE NO MORE ATTACKS” unless Iran continues attacking liquefied natural gas fields in Qatar.
However, if Iranian attacks continue, the United States “would massively explode the entire South Pars gas field with a force and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before,” Trump wrote.
The president's comments came as Iran's escalating attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure further rattled and angered U.S. allies in the region and sent shock waves through the global economy. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $118 a barrel, or more than 60% since the start of the conflict.
The attacks further threatened a global energy supply already eroded by Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is normally transported.
Despite repeated assurances from Trump and other American leaders that the United States is rapidly ending Iran's capabilities to lay mines, missiles and drones in the region, Iranian attacks have continued in the vital waterway: One ship was set alight on Thursday off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and a second damaged off Qatar.
On the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, a Saudi refinery in the Red Sea designed to avoid the strait was hit by an Iranian drone.
The attacks also increased uncertainty about the Trump administration's understanding of the trajectory, scope and timeline of the conflict.
In recent days, Trump has made contradictory comments about the Strait. He asked his allies to help safeguard the strait, but later said the United States did not help, after the allies rejected his requests.
On Thursday, he reiterated that message during an event with Japanese leaders at the White House, saying it would be “appropriate” for European countries, Japan and other U.S. allies to help defend the strait, but unnecessary. “We don't need anything,” he said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in remarks earlier Thursday, doubled down on the administration's repeated assertions that the war is going perfectly as planned and that the United States is in no risk of entering another “endless war” or another quagmire in the Middle East.
Hegseth said U.S. officials “would not want to set a definitive time frame” for ending the war, adding that the American people should ignore all the “noise” about “expanding” the conflict.
But he spoke as that noise became a chorus in the face of the latest Iranian attacks.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking before a European Union summit, condemned what he called a “reckless” escalation of the conflict and urged negotiations.
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called Iranian attacks on Gulf infrastructure a “dangerous escalation.” Authorities in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, used the same phrase to describe Iran's overnight attacks on some of its energy facilities.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Thursday that trust between his government and Tehran “has been completely shattered,” adding that Riyadh “reserves the right to take military action if necessary.”
“The kingdom and its partners have significant capabilities and the patience we have shown is not unlimited,” he said after a meeting of foreign ministers in Riyadh. He did not specify when that patience would end.
The kingdom's air defenses have intercepted at least 457 drones, 40 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. In that same time, the United Arab Emirates shot down 1,714 drones, 334 missiles and 15 cruise missiles, according to Emirati officials.
In Qatar, state-owned QatarEnergy said a fire at the Ras Laffan LNG facility, the world's largest LNG export facility and where production had already been halted, started after an Iranian missile attack and had caused “extensive” damage.
In Kuwait, the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, one of the largest in the Middle East, and the nearby Mina Abdullah refinery caught fire after drone strikes, officials said.
In Israel, millions of people ran for shelter as more than half a dozen waves of Iranian attacks targeted large areas of the country.
Meanwhile, Hegseth said the United States was preparing to launch its “largest package of strikes yet” against Iran on Thursday. He said the military would ask Congress for billions more to continue fighting the war because “it takes money to kill the bad guys.”
The Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration is considering deploying thousands of US troops to Iran, citing four unnamed sources.
In response, a White House official told the Times that there has been no decision to send ground troops to Iran, but that Trump is keeping all his options open to achieve his goals in Iran, including destroying its ballistic missile capabilities and ensuring that it cannot develop a nuclear weapon.
The United States took steps on Thursday to stabilize the oil market.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the United States could soon remove sanctions on about 140 million barrels of Iranian oil currently “in the water” in tankers, which he said should inject supply into the market and curb price increases. “Depending on how you count, it's anywhere from 10 days to two weeks of supply,” Bessent said.
The administration is also considering another unilateral release of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to further depress prices as U.S. reserves fall to their lowest levels since the 1980s.
If the sanctions were removed, they would serve as a huge financial lifeline for the Iranian government, allowing Tehran to earn billions in revenue that it could use to finance its ongoing fight against the United States and Israel.
Iran, in turn, threatened additional retaliation if its energy infrastructure is attacked further; An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman said the response to future attacks would be “much more severe.”
“We warn the enemy that they made a big mistake by attacking the energy infrastructure of…Iran,” the spokesman said in a statement carried by Iran's ISNA news agency.
“If this is repeated again, the next attacks on its energy infrastructure and that of its allies will not cease until its complete destruction,” the statement states.
The New York-based Soufan Center, in a research note, said Israel's attack on South Pars, which directly threatened Iran's electricity supply, marked a “clear expansion of the conflict.”
“Israel's targeting in this war has largely focused on institutions, leaders and infrastructure,” the think tank said. “It now seeks to put additional pressure on the regime by making living conditions for civilians intolerable.”
Amid the tensions, Gulf leaders have also expressed growing discontent with Washington.
On Wednesday, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, a central figure in US-Iran negotiations, described the war as a “catastrophe” and said the Trump administration's “biggest miscalculation” was “getting dragged into this war in the first place.”
Albusaidi added that Iran's retaliation against the Gulf States “was an inevitable, albeit deeply regrettable and completely unacceptable, outcome,” which “was probably the only rational option available” to an Iranian leadership facing an existential war.
“Friends of the United States have a responsibility to tell the truth,” he said. “It is an uncomfortable truth to say, because it implies indicating the extent to which the United States has lost control of its own foreign policy. But it must be said.”
Rector reported from Colorado and Bulos from Beirut. timetaff wWriter Gavin J. Quinton contributed to this. report.
