President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. had no advance knowledge of an Israeli strike on a major Iranian natural gas field that prompted Iran to retaliate against neighboring Qatar and sent oil prices soaring.
Even as he distanced the U.S. from the strike on the South Pars gas field, Trump vowed to “massively blow up the entirety of the field” if Iran attacked Qatar again.
“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,” he said in a social media post.
The president’s response to the attack on the world’s largest gas field, which supplies the vast majority of Iran’s domestic energy demands, appeared to be an unusual acknowledgment of a breakdown in coordination between Israel and the U.S. in the war that the two countries launched with joint strikes on Feb. 28.
Trump said Israel struck a “relatively small section” of the natural gas field.
He said South Pars would not be targeted in the future unless Iran launches further attacks on Qatar, in which case he threatened to destroy the entire natural gas field.
“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,” he said.
Iran depends heavily on natural gas to produce electricity and heat throughout the country. The natural gas from South Pars fulfills 80 percent of Iran’s natural gas demands.