Kamal Ghorui
Iran stepped up attacks on energy sites across the Gulf on Thursday, hitting the SAMREF refinery in Saudi Arabia. The facility is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil.The attack comes after Iran condemned the earlier strike on South Pars with its president, Masoud Pezeshkian, warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world.”Iran also struck liquefied natural gas facilities in Qatar and targeted two oil refineries in Kuwait, setting them ablaze. The attacks followed an Israeli strike on Iran’s main South Pars gas field, marking a major escalation in the conflict.Global fuel prices rose sharply after the strikes. Brent crude oil climbed to $114 a barrel, up more than 57 per cent since Israel and the United States launched attacks on Iran on February 28.Saudi Arabia had started sending large volumes of oil west to avoid the Strait of Hormuz and export it through the Red Sea. But that route came under pressure after an Iranian drone hit the SAMREF refinery in Yanbu.Saudi, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates condemned the attacks. Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat said strikes on the kingdom meant “what little trust there was before has completely been shattered.”Iran showed no signs of stopping, however. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted six drones over Riyadh and the Eastern Province before confirming the hit on the SAMREF refinery.In Washington, Donald Trump said Israel would not attack South Pars again. But he warned that if Iran continued to strike Qatar’s energy sites, the United States would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.“I do not want to authorise this level of violence and destruction because of the long-term implications that it will have on the future of Iran,” Trump said on social media.
