'Angry Israel violently lashed out': Trump after attack on Iran's major gas field, says won't happen again

Trump said no more attacks will be made by Israel unless Iran retaliates.

US President Donald Trump has said that Israel won't attack Iran gas field again after it 'lashed out violently'. He said "angry Israel" had attacked Iran's major gas field, and now it won't unless Iran retaliated.

Wednesday's attack on the huge South Pars gas field drove oil prices higher and prompted a threat ⁠by Iran to attack oil and gas targets across the Gulf, while it fired missiles at Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Taking to his account on Truth Social, he wrote, "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."

He further added that the United States "knew nothing" about the particular attack.

"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 wrote.

Confirming no more attacks will be made by Israel unless Iran retaliates, Trump said he does not want to "authorise this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran."

The escalation heightens the unprecedented disruption ‌of global energy supplies that has raised the political stakes for Trump, who ​joined Israel in attacking Iran nearly four weeks ago.

State oil giant QatarEnergy reported "extensive damage" after Iranian missiles hit the Ras Laffan Industrial City that processes about a fifth of global gas supply.

South Pars is the Iranian sector of the world's largest natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar, a close US ally and host of the United States' biggest military ⁠base in the Gulf.

Since the start of the conflict, Tehran has targeted not just Israel, but US diplomatic and military facilities across the Gulf and warned its neighbors not to host attacks on Iran.

With no sign of de-escalation, Trump is considering sending thousands more US troops to ‌the Middle East, a US official and three other people familiar with the planning told Reuters.

Those troops could be used to restore the safe passage of oil ‌tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for a fifth of the world's oil trade.

(With Reuters inputs)