Trump threatens Iran to "completely" destroy the South Pars gas field

WashingtonThe Iran-Contra affair threatens to escalate into a spiral of attacks against key locations in the global energy market. After Wednesday morning, IsraelHe bombed the South Pars gas facilities (the largest in the world) and after Iran vowed revenge, Donald Trump responded: if Tehran retaliates, Washington will "completely" destroy the gas field jointly operated by the ayatollahs and Qatar. Conveniently, the US president's warning comes after Doha reported that an Iranian missile struck its Ras Laffan gas facility. The Republican allows the Iranians to exact their "eye for an eye," but wants to stop it here.

The president promises the Iranians that there will be no more Israeli attacks on South Pars if they do not launch further attacks on Qatar's gas facilities. "No further attacks will be made by Israel in connection with this extremely important and valuable South Pars field, unless Iran rashly decides to attack a very innocent country, in this case Qatar; in this event, the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will destroy a massacre Iran has never seen or witnessed," he wrote on Truth Social Wednesday night.

Trump asserted that "the United States knew nothing" about the attack and that Qatar "was not involved in any way, nor did it have any knowledge." But that "unfortunately, Iran did not know" and that is why it perpetrated this first "unjust" attack against the Ras Laffan facility. Although the president denies having knowledge of the operation, according to the Israeli press, the bombing of part of South Pars was indeed carried out with Washington's consent.

If the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had already sent oil prices soaring, the addition of the region's energy hubs as a new target further clouds the economic outlook. The Israeli bombing of South Pars has already triggered a rise in oil prices, with the price of a barrel of crude soaring to almost $110. The Ras Laffan complex, which the Iranians attacked this afternoon, is the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility: it is estimated to produce nearly 20% of the global supply and plays a key role in fuel demand in both Asian and European markets. The consequences of a full-scale US attack on South Pars are self-evident.

Aside from Ras Laffan, Iran had also threatened potential attacks on other Gulf energy infrastructure, such as the Jubail petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia and the Al Hosn gas field in the United Arab Emirates. Qatar's Foreign Ministry denounced Wednesday's attack as a further escalation: "The Iranians continue their escalation policies, which are pushing the region to the brink and dragging countries not directly involved into the conflict zone."

The attack on Qatar's liquefied natural gas facility reveals a new tactic by which Iran It attempts to erode the alliances of the Gulf countries. with the US, while pressure escalates globally. Since the war began three weeks ago, Tehran has carried out attacks against the other petrostates in the region. The offensive threatens the economic model that these countries have built over the last few decades under the protection of the security afforded by their partnership with Washington. Now, the conflict has revealed a very different scenario: having bases or any kind of military alliance with the US, rather than being a deterrent, has become a target.