Trump says US, Qatar not involved in attack on Iranian gas fields

Jerusalem/Washington: An Israeli attack on an Iranian gas field on Wednesday was coordinated with the United States but is unlikely to happen again, three Israeli officials said, although President Donald Trump said he had no prior knowledge. The attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field triggered airstrikes on energy infrastructure in Qatar and across West Asia, marking the biggest escalation of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday night that Washington “knew nothing about this particular attack.” Three Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that Israel was not surprised by Trump’s comments. They described the dynamic as similar to what happened after Israel attacked an Iranian fuel depot a few weeks ago. After the attacks, Pentagon chief Pete Hegers said, “In this particular case, these attacks were not ours.”Trump said on Thursday he had told ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks on Iranian natural gas fields. “I told him, don’t do that, and he wouldn’t do that,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We get along very well. It’s very coordinated, but sometimes he does things that the United States objects to,” Trump said.Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday that Israel carried out a “violent attack” that hit a “relatively small part” of the battlefield. Qatar also accused Israel of attacking South Pars. “The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, nor was the nation of Qatar involved in any way, shape, or form, nor did it know it would occur,” Trump wrote. He accused Iran of “unjustly and unfairly” retaliating against Qatar’s liquefied natural gas facilities. Iran uses most of its natural gas domestically, but Qatar is the world’s third-largest exporter of LNG. South Pars is part of a larger reservoir shared by Qatar and Iran.Trump vowed in the post that “there will be no more Israeli attacks on South Pars” unless Iran attacks Qatar’s energy facilities. If that happened, he said, the United States would “massively blow up” the field. “I don’t want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because it will have long-term consequences for Iran’s future, but if Qatar’s LNG is attacked again, I will not hesitate to do so,” Trump said.Since the Israeli attack on South Pars, Iranian attacks have caused widespread damage to the world’s largest gas plant in Qatar, hit a refinery in Saudi Arabia and forced the United Arab Emirates to shut down gas facilities.Gulf Arab states sought an explanation from the Trump administration after the Iran attack, with one contacting U.S. Central Command, a person familiar with the matter said.The Pentagon’s Middle East (West Asia) command told the country that Israel was not notified before the attack, the source said. The person requested anonymity and declined to name the countries involved.The country then contacted Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said that while the attack was not a joint U.S.-Israeli operation, Washington had been informed of it in advance, the sources said. Israel has not publicly acknowledged responsibility for the attack.The United States and Israel have repeatedly tried to emphasize their close coordination in joint air strikes against Iran, but officials on both sides have acknowledged that their goals are not the same. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday that Israel has been working to “undermine Iran’s leadership” while the United States is focused on destroying Iran’s ballistic missile program and its navy. mechanism