Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel will refrain from further attacks on an Iranian gas field at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump, amid escalating strikes targeting energy infrastructure across the Gulf.
The strikes, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian gas field, sent fuel prices soaring and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors directly into the conflict. Global fuel supplies were already under pressure because of Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, Iran’s top leaders have been killed in airstrikes and the country’s military capabilities have been severely degraded. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said late Thursday that Iran no longer has the ability to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, although he didn’t provide evidence.
Still, Iran - now led by the son of the supreme leader killed in the war’s opening salvo - remains capable of missile and drone attacks rattling its Gulf Arab neighbors and a global economy dependent on the energy they produce.
Underscoring the danger to ships in the region, a vessel was set ablaze off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and another damaged off Qatar. Efforts to bypass the strait were also under pressure: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea, which the country had hoped to use as an alternative route.
