Tehran, March 19 (IANS) Iran warned on Thursday that it would carry out more severe retaliatory strikes if the US and Israel attack its energy facilities again.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said in a statement published by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Sepah News that Tehran had not sought to expand the conflict to oil infrastructure or harm the economies of friendly neighbouring states.
“Following the enemies’ aggression against Iranian energy infrastructure, we have practically entered a new stage of war,” he added.
Zolfaghari said Iran’s response was ongoing and warned that further attacks would be met with more intense strikes targeting energy infrastructure linked to the US, Israel and their allies, Xinhua news agency reported.
On Wednesday, Israel struck Iran’s South Pars offshore natural gas field in the Gulf, which it shares with Qatar.
Qatar later reported fires and extensive damage at liquefied natural gas facilities following Iranian strikes.
The escalation comes amid heightened tensions after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran began February 28, prompting retaliatory attacks by Iran and its regional allies against Israeli and US interests across the Middle East.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all denounced the Iranian attacks, with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, saying assaults on it meant “what little trust there was before has completely been shattered”.
In morning trading, Brent crude oil, the international standard, was above $110 US a barrel, up more than 50 per cent since Israel and the US started the war on February 28 with strikes on Iran.
The wave of Iranian attacks came after Israel hit South Pars, the world’s largest gas field located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly by Iran and Qatar.
With some 80 per cent of all power generated in Iran coming from natural gas, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the attack directly threatens the country’s electricity supplies. Natural gas is also used to supply household heating and cooking across the country.
Iran condemned the strike on South Pars, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world”.
Qatar Energy said on X that a missile hit on its massive Ras Laffan LNG facility caused the blaze early Thursday.
A ship was also hit off the country’s coast, according to the UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre. It was not clear whether it was deliberately targeted or was struck by falling debris as Qatar fired off missile interceptors at incoming Iranian barrages.
Saudi Arabia also reported downing Iranian drones targeting its natural gas facilities overnight, and authorities in Abu Dhabi shut down the Habshan gas facility and Bab field after interceptions over the sites.
Another ship was set ablaze early Thursday off the UAE coast. It was also unclear whether it was targeted or hit with debris, the UKMTO said.
It added that the vessel was just off the coast of Khor Fakkan, near the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is normally shipped.
More than 20 vessels have been attacked during the Iran war so far as Tehran has kept a tight grip on shipping traffic through the waterway, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.
Iran insists the waterway is open, just not to the US or its allies, and while some vessels have sailed through, it has only been a trickle.
Iran announced the execution of three men detained in January’s nationwide protests, the first such sentences known to have been carried out, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
The men were accused of stabbing two police officers to death in Qom, nearly 130 km south of the capital, Tehran, during the protests.
Iran cracked down the demonstrations with intense violence that killed thousands of people and saw tens of thousands others detained, and activists have warned that authorities might carry out mass executions of those detained.
Iran long has been accused by rights campaigners of extracting coerced confessions from detainees and not allowing them to fully defend themselves in court.
More than 1,300 people in Iran have been killed during the war.
Israeli strikes have displaced more than one million Lebanese — nearly 20 per cent of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says 968 people have been killed.
In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire, including a Thai agricultural worker who died overnight after getting hit with shrapnel. Three people were also killed in the occupied West Bank overnight by an Iranian missile strike, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
At least 13 US military members have been killed.
–IANS
int/khz