Iranian state-run media say that facilities associated with Iran’s massive offshore South Pars natural gas field came under attack on Wednesday.
Both Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency reported on the attack targeting facilities at Asaluyeh in Iran’s southern Bushehr province. It did not immediately elaborate. Iran shares the offshore field in the Persian Gulf with Qatar, which it has repeatedly attacked during the war, along with other Gulf Arab nations.
It wasn’t clear if Israel or the United States had carried out the attack, however the US has been operating primarily in southern Iran. The US previously attacked Iran’s Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, its main oil terminal. Iran’s state television published a threat on Wednesday, saying the Islamic Republic would be attacking oil and gas infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The threat resembled other attack warnings put out by Iran during the war, copying the style used by the Israeli military.
Iran specifically threatened Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and its Jubail Petrochemical Complex. It also threatened the UAE’s Al Hasan Gas Field and the petrochemical plants and a refinery in Qatar.
It comes after Iran said its South Pars gas field and associated infrastructure came under attack earlier Wednesday.
Qatar blames Israel for the attack
Qatar on Wednesday blamed Israel for an attack on an offshore natural gas field it shares with Iran. The accusation came from Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry. The Iranian side of the field, the South Pars field, came under attack Wednesday and was burning.
Al-Ansari called the attack “a dangerous & irresponsible step amid the current military escalation in the region.” “Targeting energy infrastructure constitutes a threat to global energy security, as well as to the peoples of the region & its environment,” he wrote on X. “We reiterate, as we have repeatedly emphasized, the necessity of avoiding the targeting of vital facilities.
Iran-US Talks Unlikely Amid Conflict: Rafael Grossi
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi says he doesn’t believe Iran would be willing to return to nuclear negotiations with the United States until there’s a ceasefire and a halt to U.S.-Israel military operations and Iranian retaliation. “It is not a moment to consider that as an immediate possibility,” Grossi told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. “For as long as there is a military campaign ongoing, I don’t think that there would be negotiations.”
Grossi took part in portions of the last round of Oman-mediated talks between the US and Iran that were held in Geneva, Switzerland, shortly before the war began. He declined to comment on the substance of those talks.
