The China Mail - Iran attacks on gas and oil refineries heighten fears over war fallout

Amid growing fears over the economic damage from the war, Trump said Iran's key South Pars gas field would not be attacked again, after Israel struck it on Wednesday, but warned of a furious American response if Tehran did not end its attacks on Qatari energy sites.

Tehran responded that it would have "zero restraint" if its own energy infrastructure was hit again.

Oil markets have already been shaken by Iran's blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, but prices surged again amid fears of further attacks on energy sites.

The international benchmark Brent surged 10 percent to $119 a barrel before falling back to $112, while European gas prices rose 35 percent, after Iranian missiles hit Qatar's huge Ras Laffan liquified natural gas complex in retaliation for the Israeli strike on South Pars.

The nighttime attack left Ras Laffan, a repeated target since the start of the war on February 28, at a complete standstill.

Saudi Arabia's defence ministry said meanwhile that a drone crashed into the Samref refinery in the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

And in Kuwait, drone attacks sparked fires at the Mina Abdullah and Mina Al-Ahmadi refineries, which have a combined capacity of 800,000 barrels per day.

Saudi Arabia said it reserved the "right to take military actions" over repeated attacks on its facilities. The United Arab Emirates said the strikes pose a "direct threat to global energy security".

Later on Thursday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that Iran's attack on Ras Laffan was "clear proof" against Tehran's claims to have only targeted US interests in the Gulf.

He said the attacks "bring no direct benefit to any country, rather, they harm and directly impact populations".

- 'Zero restraint' -

Trump indicated he did not know about Israel's raid on Iran's gas field, which supplies about 70 percent of the Islamic republic's domestic needs.

But the United States and Iran have fired off threats and counter-threats since.

Trump warned the United States would "blow up" the South Pars gas field if Tehran did not stop attacking Qatar.

Iran responded with defiance. The military's Khatam Al-Anbiya operational command vowed the "complete destruction" of Gulf energy infrastructure if the Israeli attack was repeated, according to a statement carried by Fars news agency.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media there would be "zero restraint" if the country's infrastructure was hit again.

There is growing concern among the world's major economies over fallout from the conflict.

Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands said they would "contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz" but gave few details.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the "reckless escalation" in attacks and called for "direct talks between the Americans and Iranians on this matter".

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office warned that "attacks on critical infrastructure risked pushing the region further into crisis", after talks with Macron and NATO chief Mark Rutte.

India and China also expressed new concern about supplies which depend on the shipping route. Fuel shortages have sparked long queues at petrol stations across Asia, where many economies are heavily dependent on oil.

- No time frame for war's end -

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there is no time frame for ending the war, but said that "we're very much on track" and Trump would choose when to end.

"It will be at the president's choosing, ultimately, where we say, 'Hey, we've achieved what we need to,'" he told a Washington news conference.

On Thursday, Trump said "I'm not putting troops" on the ground in Iran, amid ongoing speculation that a Marine expeditionary force being sent to the region could be used for ground operations.

Commentators said the energy attacks showed gaps between the United States and Israel over war tactics.

"The conflict is drifting into a war of attrition -- with no clear signs of regime collapse in Iran," said Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, on X.

The attacks "underscored just how unstructured this campaign has become -- lacking strategic clarity, long-term planning, and a defined end state".

US media said the administration could seek more than $200 billion in additional war funding from Congress.

"I think that number could move. Obviously it takes money to kill bad guys," Hegseth commented on the figure.

- Tehran queues -

Iran is gearing up for the key holiday of Nowruz, the Persian new year.

A US-based rights group has reported more than 3,000 people killed in Iran by the US-Israeli strikes, a figure that could not be independently verified.

In Tehran, however, there was little to suggest that the country was mired in war or that it had lost its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other key officials in US-Israeli strikes.

Tehran's city centre was filled with traffic jams and street vendors haggling over the price of clothes and fruit on Thursday.

Security was greater than usual, with heavily armed security forces visible on certain streets as well as an increased number of armoured vehicles.

burs-tw/dcp

S.Wilson--ThChM