US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat the attacks on Iranian natural gas infrastructure, as the counterattacks from Tehran sent energy prices spiralling.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump said he told Netanyahu not to launch similar attacks. “I told him, don’t do that, and he won’t do that,” Reuters quoted Trump as saying.
In a social media post, Trump on Wednesday wrote that he “knew nothing about this particular attack.”
These comments by Trump come after Israel launched an air strike on South Pars, which is Iran’s part of the world’s largest gas field, earlier this week. This prompted an Iranian aerial assault on energy infrastructure in Qatar and across the Middle East.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump condemned Iran’s attacks on Qatar as “unjustifiable” and added that “ No more attacks will be made by Israel.” Trump also said that Israel will not attack unless Iran decides to attack ‘innocent’ countries, giving the example of Qatar. In that case, Trump said that he will “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.”
Trump says he had no knowledge of attack
US president denied having prior knowledge of the attack and said that he did not make it clear when he had spoken to Netanyahu.
“We didn’t discuss, you know, we do independent, but we get along great. It’s coordinated,” Trump said. “But on occasion, he’ll do something. And if I don’t like it. And so we’re not doing that anymore.”
Three Israeli officials informed Reuters that Israel was not surprised by Trump’s comments on social media. Sources said that the dynamics between the two leaders are similar to those that played out when Israel struck fuel depots in Iran several weeks ago.
Following those attacks, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth said that in “that particular case, those weren’t our strikes.”
Since the Israeli attack on South Pars, Iranian attacks have caused extensive damage to the world’s largest gas plant in Qatar, targeted a refinery in Saudi Arabia and forced the United Arab Emirates to shut gas facilities.
