Strike On Key Iranian Gas Field Is A New Phase Of The War. Trump Blames Israel.

The widening attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East have created a rift between the White House and its Gulf allies while increasing fears of a global recession.

Israel’s targeting of the South Pars gas field in Iran on Wednesday set off a wave of Iranian reprisals that caused extensive damage to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporting facility in Qatar. It’s a major escalation in the war and one that energy industry observers have most feared because the destruction of oil and gas facilities could take years to repair and turbocharge the economic disruption already ensnaring the globe.

President Donald Trump quickly distanced his administration from the attack, and a person familiar with the White House’s thinking, granted anonymity to discuss private discussion, said the strike unsettled the administration.

“Israelis have been very reckless,” the person said, adding that Qatar reached out to U.S. officials to say Israel’s targeting of energy infrastructure needs to be stopped. “Lots of frustration with them.”

The attack, which caused oil prices to continue their climb, laid bare the growing daylight between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the war closes in on its third week.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he called Netanyahu to tell him that Israel should not target energy infrastructure.

“I told him don’t do that,” Trump said. “We're independent but we get along great. It's coordinated. But on occasion he'll do something and I don't like it. And so we're not doing that anymore."

The president also promised on Truth Social on Wednesday night that, “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field." A person familiar with the White House’s Middle East strategy said the post was written to assuage the Qataris.

Trump’s pledges come as he has threatened to take or destroy Kharg Island, through which 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil is exported.

Trump spoke to Qatari leaders on Wednesday and told them he was unaware of Israel’s plans to attack South Pars and that he does not support the strategy, said a person familiar with the conversation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

“The only way Trump is going to snap out of this is to realize that Bibi Netanyahu is playing him,” the person said. “This war is hurting the U.S., it’s bruising the Gulf region and it’s straining relationships with allies in Europe and the Gulf. The only person who’s benefitting is Netanyahu.”

The White House declined to comment, and pointed to Trump’s social media post.

At a press conference on Thursday, Netanyahu said, "Israel acted alone."

There have been warnings from some countries to the Trump administration that Netanyahu is looking to expand the war because it is politically popular for him at home, according to a person familiar with the tension between the White House and Gulf states.

“Netanyahu doesn’t care about how Republicans do in the midterms, or Trump's legacy, I think he cares about one thing, which is staying in power, that for him to stay in power, war is popular,” the person said.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both promised a limited campaign after which oil and gas prices will fall. But the new wave of attacks makes a swift offramp less likely, particularly since Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s Parliament, said the assault on the gas field that produces most of the country’s domestic supply represents “a new level of confrontation.”

Iran’s targeting of energy infrastructure in Qatar and Saudi Arabia was only a “FRACTION of our power,” foreign minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X Thursday.

“The ONLY reason for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation,” he wrote, referring to Trump’s Truth Social request. “ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are struck again.”

Crude oil prices surged overnight as a result of the conflict to almost $120 a barrel, before settling back down to about $100 late Thursday.

The war is now at a “really dangerous point” where the conflict can “escalate and get out of control in unintended ways quickly,” said Jason Bordoff, founding director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Knocking major infrastructure offline for months or longer will send oil and gas prices soaring and make a recession much more likely, he said.

“If you see tit-for-tat escalation that causes severe damage to energy infrastructure, then we're set for a period of high energy prices for much longer that could inflict much more damage on the global economy,” he said.

Even though domestic gas prices at the pump are a boon for the industry, the war appears to be at a dangerous “inflection point,” said a former Trump energy adviser who’s in contact with the White House and was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. That’s because the possibility of ending the war soon is diminishing by the day and fears of a recession are now “a live concern.”

“But no one is talking about it openly,” the former adviser said.

Qatar is one of the world’s leading producers of natural gas and the damage to its facilities is severe enough that it will take three to five years to repair, Reuters reported Thursday. That means 17 percent of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas capacity will be offline for that period.

The South Pars gas field is Iran’s biggest source of domestic energy supply - critical to its national grid, electricity and heating, rather than a key export revenue stream like Kharg Island.

“Kharg means no money to stay in power,” said the person familiar with the White House’s Middle East strategy. “Both are big. Both have long-term impacts. It’s all destabilizing — just in different ways.”

Another factor, the person noted, is that South Pars serves as a source of power and revenue for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, giving the target additional strategic significance.