DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran broadened its strikes on major energy facilities in the Middle East, eliciting strong warnings Thursday from Gulf Arab states that called it a dangerous escalation that threatened to draw them into direct combat with Tehran.
The strikes come after Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister and reportedly attacked the world’s largest natural gas field in Iran as the war escalated pressure on the region’s economic lifeblood: energy.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all denounced the Iranian attacks targeting their natural gas fields, with Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat saying assaults on the kingdom meant “what little trust there was before has completely been shattered.”
It remains unclear what steps the Gulf Arab states might take militarily as they’ve sought not to enter combat alongside the United States and Israel in the war, now in its third week. While Israel did not claim the South Pars gas field attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz promised more “surprises” after saying it killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, in an earlier airstrike as it works to decapitate the leadership of Tehran’s theocracy.
Iran condemned the strike on South Pars, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world.”
