Trump says US not involved in Israel’s South Pars strike

Iran retaliates with missile attacks on Gulf energy facilities as tensions escalate across the region.

A day after Israel struck energy facilities in Iran’s South Pars gas field and Tehran retaliated by targeting infrastructure in three Persian Gulf countries, US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Washington was not involved in the Israeli attack and that Tel Aviv would not target the gas field again.

“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at the 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,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post.

He added that Qatar had no prior knowledge of the strike. “Iran did not know this… and unjustifiably attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG gas facility,” he said.

Trump warned that no further Israeli strikes on South Pars would occur unless Iran targeted Qatar again, in which case the U.S. would respond forcefully.

Iran said Wednesday that several phases of the South Pars gas field were hit and responded by launching missiles at energy infrastructure in Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. QatarEnergy said its Ras Laffan Industrial City was struck, with several LNG facilities suffering extensive damage.