President Donald Trump has lashed out at his war partner Israel over attacks on key Iranian energy facilities, claiming he had no prior knowledge of the attack.
On Wednesday, an Iranian facility linked to South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas field, was bombed. The gas field is Iran’s largest domestic energy source and is shared with Qatar.
Israeli media reported that the attack was carried out by Israel with the consent of the United States, and the Wall Street Journal stated that the attack planned to cut off the economic pipeline of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Donald Trump posts about Israel attacking Iran. /screen grab
On Wednesday night, Trump offered a different account in an angry “Truth Society” post, saying he had received no advance warning of Israel’s plans.
“In anger over what is happening in the Middle East, Israel has launched a violent attack on a major facility in Iran’s South Pars gas field,” Trump wrote.
US President Donald Trump made a gesture while boarding Air Force One on March 18. /Kelly Cooper/Reuters
“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, nor was the state of Qatar involved in any way, shape, or form, nor did it know it would occur,” the president added.
However, there are reports that the United States has been informed of Israel’s plans.
The Associated Press quoted sources as saying that the United States was aware of the plan but was not involved in the bombing. The sources declined to say whether the Trump administration approved of the Israeli attack.
The South Pars gas field shown in the photo was attacked by Israel last November. / Reuters Photographer / REUTERS
New reporting from Semaphor also bolsters claims that the Trump administration was aware of the attack, while Axios reported that senior Israeli and U.S. officials knew about the attack in advance and “even approved it” in an effort to pressure Iran.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
According to Axios, Trump changed course after Iran carried out retaliatory attacks.
Qatar Energy also confirmed that multiple of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities were hit by missile attacks on Thursday morning, causing further extensive damage, but no casualties were reported.
Semafo questioned Trump’s post, saying he
Trump claimed Iran had “unreasonably and unfairly attacked part of Qatar’s LNG facility.”
He added, “Israel will not launch another attack on the extremely important and valuable South Pars oil fields unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent country, in this case Qatar.”
Axios claims Trump had advance knowledge of Israeli attacks on Iran. /screen grab
Trump later warned Iran that if Iran attacks Qatar, the United States will destroy the entire South Pars operation “regardless of Israel’s help or consent.”
“I don’t want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because it will have long-term consequences for Iran’s future, but if Qatar’s LNG is attacked again, I will not hesitate to do so,” Trump said.
Recent attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East have sent oil prices soaring further. Following the strike, international benchmark Brent crude oil prices rose more than 7% to $111.23 a barrel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. /Evelyn Hochstein/Reuters
After the attack, the Qatari Foreign Ministry declared the Iranian embassy soldiers and their staff persona non grata and required them to leave Qatar within 24 hours.
“Qatar considers this attack a dangerous escalation, a blatant violation of its sovereignty and a direct threat to its national security,” the statement said.
“Iran, for its part, continues its policy of escalation and is pushing the region to the brink and drawing countries not involved in this crisis into the conflict zone.”
