Iran intensified its attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf on Thursday, dramatically raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy.

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. Tehran’s targeting of energy production further stressed global supply 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.

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. But efforts to bypass the strait were also under pressure: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea, which the country had been hoping to use as an alternative exit route.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, spiked to as high as $118 a barrel, up more than 60% since Israel and the United States started the war Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran.

Ahead of a European Union summit overshadowed by the conflict’s impact on energy prices, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he called a “reckless” escalation and urged a truce and negotiations as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan comes to an end.

Energy infrastructure is targeted around the Gulf

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE denounced the Iranian attacks. Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit called them a “dangerous escalation.”

But Iran showed no signs of backing down. Saudi Arabia intercepted six drones in Riyadh and its Eastern province before saying that the SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu was hit.

Saudi Arabia had begun pumping large volumes of oil west toward the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. The Saudi Defense Ministry and Shell said damage assessment was underway at the facility.

Qatar, a key source of natural gas for world markets, said firefighters put out a blaze at the Ras Laffan LNG facility after it was hit by Iranian missiles. Production had already been halted there after earlier attacks. The state-owned QatarEnergy said the fire had caused “extensive” damage, and energy giant Shell said it was assessing it.

Ras Laffan is the largest liquefied natural gas export facility in the world, according to QatarEnergy. Damage to the facility could delay Qatar’s ability to get supplies to the market even after the war ends.

A drone attack on Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery sparked a fire but caused no injuries, the state-run KUNA news agency reported. The refinery is one of the biggest in the Middle East. Shortly after, a drone attack set ablaze the nearby Mina Abdullah refinery, officials said.

Authorities in Abu Dhabi said they were forced to shut down operations at its Habshan gas facility and Bab field, calling Iranian overnight attacks on the sites a “dangerous escalation.”

In Israel, more than a half-dozen waves of Iranian attacks targeting large parts of the country sent millions of people to shelters. The strikes caused damage to buildings but no significant casualties were reported.

Iran’s strikes were retaliation for Israeli attack on a critical gas field

The Iranian attacks came after Israel hit South Pars, the Iranian part of the world’s largest gas field located offshore in the Persian Gulf and owned jointly with Qatar.

With some 80% 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 Islamic Republic.

Hitting the gas field is a “clear expansion of the conflict,” the New York-based Soufan Center said in a research note.

“Israel’s target selection in this war has heavily focused on the institutions, leaders and infrastructure,” the think tank said. “It now seeks to inflict additional pressure on the regime by making the living conditions for civilians intolerable.”

Iran condemned the strike on South Pars, with President Masoud Pezeshkian warning of “uncontrollable consequences” that “could engulf the entire world.”

In Washington, President Donald Trump said that Israel would not attack South Pars again, but warned on social media that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the U.S. would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.

“I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran,” Trump said on social media.

Iran executes 3 men detained during January protests

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, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, Tehran, during the protests.

Iran put 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.

Death toll climbs in third week of war

More than 1,300 people in Iran have been killed during the war. Israeli strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon have displaced more than 1 million people — roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 900 people have been killed.

In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. Four people were also killed in the occupied West Bank overnight by an Iranian missile strike, according to officials.

At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.

Source: AP

--Agencies