Trump denies prior knowledge of Israeli strikes on Iran energy facilities
The US President published a Truth Social post claiming the US was not informed prior - a claim which former Israeli and American officials believe to be extremely unlikely
US President Donald Trump has claimed that America “knew nothing” about an attack conducted by Israel yesterday on a section of a gas field controlled by the Iranian regime; an assertion which has been contradicted by Israeli officials.
Israeli struck part of the South Pars gas field, the largest natural gas field in the world, based in the Persian Gulf, with control split between Iran and Qatar. Subsequently, Iran struck Qatar’s liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities at Ras Laffan twice within a 24 hour period, causing extensive damage.
In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump said:
“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility.”
Trump went on to declare that “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar – In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before. I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so.”
Israel is believed to have targeted the Iranian regime’s largest gas processing plant, responsible for approximately 40% of the country’s production, in the Persian Gulf city of Asaluyeh. While the plant was not destroyed, considerable damage is believed to have been inflicted.
Dan Shapiro, who served as US ambassador to Israel from 2011-2017, said: “Trump can post whatever he likes. But there is zero, I mean zero, chance the IDF would conduct a strike in that location without giving CENTCOM full visibility. Trump knew (and approved). Now he realizes it caused a major escalation with Iran’s (entirely unjustified) attacks on Gulf energy targets.” He went on to say that “what the President claimed [about the lack of knowledge from the US] is politically and operationally impossible”.
Meanwhile, Gilad Erdan, former Israeli ambassador to the US and the UN, told Jewish Insider that “Israel took upon itself to be at the front [of the situation] because the field is also Qatari. Someone had to send the deterrent message about the energy field to the Iranians, that if they continue, then … they will be hurt badly.”
The Qatari government described the first Iranian attack on its Ras Laffan oil site as a “direct threat to its national security and the stability of the region”, going on to say that “the Iranian side continues its escalatory policies that are pushing the region toward the abyss and drawing in countries that are not parties to this crisis into the circle of conflict.”
Iran has also attempted to target sites in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the last 24 hours. Yesterday the Iranian regime targeted Riyadh, the Saudi capital, while regional diplomats gathered there. On Thursday morning an Iranian drone hit the Saudi Aramco oil refinery in the Gulf port of Yanbu. Saudi representatives have said that they reserve the right to take military action in response.
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