USA – Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that he wasn’t aware of the strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field, but according to American and Israeli officials who spoke to the Axios news site, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump had coordinated on the strike with the aim of deterring Iran from disrupting oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz, they said.
Axios also reported that Qatari officials contacted US special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior administration officials after the first Iranian missile strike to learn whether the US knew about the Israeli attack. Witkoff worked to arrange an urgent call between Trump and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, sources told the news outlet.
An Israeli airstrike targeted the Iranian side of the South Pars gas field Wednesday, halting production at two major refineries.
Qatar reported two separate missile attacks on the Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar’s main LNG production hub, on Wednesday and early Thursday.
In response, Qatar declared Iranian military and security attaches at Iran’s embassy along with their staff persona non grata.
Trump Threatens Iran While Contradicting Facts
Trump said on Wednesday that Israel will not strike Iran’s South Pars gas field again unless Tehran retaliates while warning that any further attack on Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure would prompt the US to destroy the entire facility.
“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack (on the South Pars field), and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He said Iran had “unjustifiably and unfairly” struck a portion of Qatar’s LNG facility in the Ras Laffan Industrial City after failing to understand those facts.
Trump described the Israeli strike on South Pars as Israel having “violently lashed out” at the facility “out of anger,” saying only “a relatively small section” of the field had been hit.
He warned that if Qatar’s LNG infrastructure were hit again, the US would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field” with or without Israeli involvement at a scale Iran had “never seen or witnessed before.”
He said he did not want to authorize such destruction given its long-term consequences for Iran’s future but would not hesitate if forced to act.
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