Kamal Ghorui
Iran intensified its attacks on oil and natural gas facilities around the Gulf Thursday, raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy.The strikes, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, sent fuel prices soaring and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbours directly into the conflict. Tehran’s targeting of energy production further stressed global supplies already under pressure because of Iran’s stranglehold on Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.Iran targeted energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE. An Iranian missile attack also hit Israel’s oil refineries in the northern port city of Haifa.Underscoring the danger to ships in the region, a vessel was set ablaze off the coast of UAE and another damaged off Qatar. Efforts to bypass the strait were also under pressure: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi Arabian refinery in the Red Sea, which the country had been hoping to use as an alternative exit route.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, spiked to as high as $118 a barrel, up more than 60% since Israel and US started the war. The European benchmark for natural gas prices rose 17% Thursday and has doubled in the past month. US may remove sanctions from Iranian oil that is stranded on tankers to help lift global supplies and reduce prices, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE denounced the Iranian attacks. Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called these a “dangerous escalation”.But Iran showed no signs of backing down. The attacks have knocked out 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, causing an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy’s CEO and state minister for energy told Reuters. Saudi Arabia said its SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu was hit.Two refineries in Kuwait and gas operations in Abu Dhabi also were targeted by Iran, local authorities said. In Israel, more than a half-dozen waves of Iranian attacks targeting large parts of the country sent millions of people to shelters. The strikes caused damage to buildings. An Iranian missile attack hit Israel’s Oil Refineries in the northern port city of Haifa but did not cause “significant damage”, Israel’s Energy Ministry said on Thursday.In Washington, defence secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the US military “controls the fate” of Iran. “Iran has the ability to make the right choices,” he said, adding that Tehran “should not, going forward, target Arab allies, Arab countries, trying to create pain, the pain that they created themselves.”Israel said Thursday it struck Iranian targets in the Caspian Sea for the first time. Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said the strikes hit dozens of targets, including ships, a shipyard and a command centre.The Trump administration has cited various war objectives, including degrading Iran’s missile capabilities Hegseth on Thursday implied Thursday that more leaders could be targeted , referring specifically to the IRGC and Basij force, whose leader was killed by Israel earlier this week. “The last job anyone in the world wants right now, senior leader for the IRGC or Basij, temp jobs, all of them,” Hegseth said.
