As energy infrastructure in the Gulf comes under attack, questions are being raised over what the United States knows about Israel’s plans to attack Iran’s major gas fields.
Published March 19, 2026
US President Donald Trump has sought to distance the US from an Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, saying Israel’s allies had “violently assaulted” the facility, and promised there would be no repeat if Iran refrained from attacking Qatar.
President Trump said the United States had “nothing to do” with Wednesday’s attack on an offshore gas field facility in Iran’s Bushehr province, which followed Iran’s pledge to attack energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
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Later, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial city suffered “significant damage” in an Iranian missile attack, and the UAE suspended operations at its Habshan gas facility and Bab oil field following the missile attack.
“There will be no further attacks by Israel on this very important and valuable South Pals field,” President Trump said late Wednesday on his platform TruthSocial.
“Unless Iran decides to imprudently attack a very innocent country, in this case Qatar, in which case the United States will massively detonate the entire South Pars gas field, with or without Israel’s support and consent, with power and force unlike anything Iran has ever seen or witnessed before.”
“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, the country of Qatar was not involved in any way, and we had no idea it would happen,” Trump said.
Earlier Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump approved Israel’s plan to attack Southern Pars, the Iranian sector of the world’s largest natural gas deposits that Iran shares with Qatar.
The newspaper quoted a US official as saying, “Trump knew about Israel’s attack on South Pearl in advance and supported it as a message to Iran regarding its closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The president believes Iran has gotten the message and now opposes attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure.”
Al Jazeera’s Roziland Jordan, reporting from Washington, D.C., said the attack on Iran’s gas fields, one of its key economic engines, poses serious problems.
“This raises some questions about whether the Israelis told the US before Wednesday’s attack that they were planning to attack South Pars,” Jordan said.
The attack on South Pars Island was the first time in the current conflict that a location directly associated with fossil fuel production was targeted, rather than broader oil and gas infrastructure.
Analysts have suggested that attacks on such facilities have so far been spared to limit the risk of retaliatory attacks on them across the region.
The recent escalation has raised concerns that the conflict could spread into the energy sector and have far-reaching economic consequences globally.
