Trump Threatens to Destroy Iran's Largest Gas Field Over Qatar Bombings

US President Donald Trump has warned he could destroy a key gas field in Iran if it ever attacks the US ally Qatar again.

This warning comes just a day after Israel reportedly struck Iran's South Pars gas field, which is part of the world's biggest natural gas reserve. In response, Tehran launched an attack on an energy facility in Qatar, reportedly causing "extensive damage" and sending energy prices soaring.

While Israel has not officially confirmed its attack on the gas field, the US president said the US "knew nothing" about its ally, which had "violently lashed out" at Iran, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East.

The fighting in the region keeps going after the United States and Israel carried out large-scale strikes against Iran on February 28th.

In reply, Tehran has launched attacks targeting Israel and countries in the Gulf that are allies of the US. Israel is also currently engaged in conflict with Hezbollah, a group backed by Iran, in Lebanon, leading to over a million people being forced to leave their homes there.

READ ALSO: President Donald Trump Declares That America Has Defeated Iran

Oil prices rose to nearly $110 (£83) a barrel after Israel attacks the South Pars site, which is located offshore between Iran and Qatar.

Following the Israeli attack, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of "consequences beyond control, the scope of which would engulf the entire world".

Verified images of the strike showed smoke rising from at least two impacts. Iran retaliated by striking Qatar's Ras Laffan site on Wednesday and early on Thursday.

Ras Laffan is an industrial area that contains the world's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing facility.

Following the first attack, state-owned petroleum company, QatarEnergy, said "extensive damage" had been caused to the site, but all personnel were accounted for.

After the site was hit for a second time, Qatar's interior ministry said all fires at the energy facility had been brought under control without any reported injuries.

In his strongly-worded social media post early on Thursday, Trump said "Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with" Israel's attack on the Iranian gas field, and Iran's retaliatory attacks on Qatar's Ras Laffan were made "unjustifiably and unfairly".

If Iran did strike Qatar again, Trump threatened that the US would "massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before".

He added that he did not want to authorise "this level of violence and destruction because of the long-term implications" for Iran, but if Qatar's LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so.

Before Trump's statement, the Wall Street Journal reported that anonymous US officials claimed the president had backed the strike on South Pars as a message to Iran, given its restrictions on tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil shipping route. However, these officials also noted that he did not want any more strikes of this nature.

A spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry described Israel's targeting of facilities tied to Iran's South Pars field, which is connected to Qatar's North Field, as a "dangerous and irresponsible move." Both the UAE and Oman also voiced their disapproval of the attack.

Later, the Qatari government called the first Iranian attack on its Ras Laffan oil facility "brazen" and labeled it a "direct threat to its national security and the stability of the region."

"The Iranian side continues its escalatory policies that are pushing the region toward the abyss and drawing in countries that are not parties to this crisis into the circle of conflict," the ministry said in a statement.

Qatar also mentioned that it "reserves the right to respond." Two Iranian diplomats and their staff have been instructed to depart Qatar within 24 hours. The attacks on the oil field have added to the instability in energy markets.

During early trading on Thursday, the price of gas rose by more than 25% on wholesale markets in the UK and Europe, before settling down a bit.

The price of gas in Europe is now more than double what it was before the conflict started.