The China Mail - Trump threatens to destroy Iran's largest gas field

Crude oil prices surged five percent as the latest strikes fed fears that the nearly three-week-old Middle East war could inflict lasting damage on global energy supplies.

Tehran has carried out a series of attacks on Gulf energy sites, including on Qatar's huge Ras Laffan LNG facility, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Iran's South Pars gas field -- part of the world's largest natural gas reservoir.

Trump called in a social media post for strikes on both Iranian and Qatari energy sites to halt.

Washington "knew nothing" of Israel's earlier attack on Iran's South Pars gas field, he said, vowing that "NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL" on the site if Tehran stops attacking Qatar.

But if Iran did not comply, the United States would "massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field", Trump warned.

- 'Extensive damage' -

Energy prices have already spiralled since tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of the world's oil, was brought to a near standstill by the threat of Iranian attacks.

Since launching the war on Iran on February 28, US and Israeli forces have depleted the Islamic republic's leadership in a string of strikes, the latest killing intelligence chief Esmail Khatib.

Thousands of people have been reported killed in Iran by the US-Israeli strikes, but Tehran is still unleashing missile and drone attacks across the Middle East while throttling oil supplies.

Qatar's state energy company said firefighters managed to contain several blazes caused by Iranian missile attacks on its Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas facility.

Saudi Arabia said it reserved the "right to take military actions" after intercepting drones targeting energy infrastructure in the east, while debris from a ballistic missile landed near a refinery south of Riyadh.

- 'Blood comes at a price' -

An Iranian missile barrage killed a Thai foreign worker in central Israel, Israeli medics and Thailand's foreign ministry said, bringing the death toll in the country to 15.

Missile debris also killed three Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken to Trump and the Emir of Qatar, and called for a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure.

The killing of Iran's intelligence chief, Khatib, followed the assassination of security chief Ali Larijani, as Israel pressed a campaign to eliminate senior Iranian officials.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned Khatib's killing as a "cowardly assassination", while the country's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed retaliation.

"Every drop of spilled blood comes at a price," he said in a written message.

Khamenei has not appeared in public since taking power after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in the opening strikes of the war.

- 'Largely degraded' -

In Washington, US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told Congress the Iranian government remained "intact but largely degraded", while also acknowledging Tehran had not resumed nuclear enrichment.

Lebanon has been drawn into the conflict since the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel over Ali Khamenei's death.

Israeli strikes hit central Beirut multiple times on Wednesday, with casualties reported, as fighting with Hezbollah intensified.

A line of cars stretched as far as the eye could see along the country's southern coast as residents of affected areas fled to the ancient city of Sidon in search of safety.

One man, Nidal Ahmad Chokr, said he initially intended to stay put but finally decided on Tuesday to leave his village of Jibchit, as the air strikes intensified.

- Died making bread-

"Bakers died while making bread" in the village square and "municipal workers were martyred while using bulldozers", the 55-year-old said.

France's foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot is to travel to Lebanon on Thursday, in a visit that the ministry said "underlines France's support and solidarity with the Lebanese people, dragged into a war they didn't choose".

In Iraq, the pro-Iranian armed group Kataeb Hezbollah said it would halt attacks on the US embassy for five days, setting conditions including an end to Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs and a halt to attacks on residential areas in Iraq.

AFP reported no drone or rocket fire targeting the US embassy in Baghdad from Wednesday night through Thursday morning.

P.Deng--ThChM