Israeli officials told The New York Times on Thursday that the attack on Iranian facilities linked to the South Pars gas field was coordinated with the US, despite President Trump claiming the US “knew nothing” of the plans to strike the energy infrastructure.
The South Pars gas field, shared by Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf, is said to be the world’s largest natural gas field. Following the Israeli strikes on Iran’s infrastructure, Iranian retaliatory strikes targeted energy infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
According to the CEO of QatarEnergy, strikes on Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas facility caused $20 billion in losses and wiped out 17% of Doha’s gas export capacity. Following the round of attacks, Trump attempted to distance the US from the bombing of Iran’s gas facilities.
“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. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, 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,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“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,” Trump added.
The US president said that there would be “no more Israeli attacks” on such facilities and threatened that if Iran attacks Qatar’s gas infrastructure again, the US “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.”
The Israeli officials speaking to the Times said that the US was notified of the plans to strike Iran’s gas facilities ahead of the attack. Axios also reported that Israeli officials said the Trump administration had approved the attack, and said the Israeli claims were confirmed by a Pentagon official.
