Iran says Israel aims to ‘drag war’ to Gulf region after attack on world’s largest gas field

Tehran on Sunday said Israel wanted to “drag the conflict to the Persian Gulf” after the latter attacked the world’s largest gas field that Iran shares with Qatar, igniting another round of deadly tit-for-tat missile barrages.

Israel launched an air offensive against Iran on Friday, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop Tehran building an atomic weapon, which the latter has consistently denied, saying its uranium enrichment programme is for civilian purposes.

What we know so far:

• Production suspended after Israel hits Iran’s South Pars gas field
• 10 more killed, over 140 injured in Israel as Tehran responds with another missile barrage
• Germany, France, UK offer talks over nuclear programme
• 3 drones reportedly aimed at US base in Iraq shot down as Trump warns against attacks on US
• Situation ‘under control’ after oil depot hit; other refineries ‘functioning’

A day after Israel wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command, it hit Iran’s oil and gas industry for the first time. Iran then partially suspended gas production at the South Pars gas field, which it shares with Qatar.

At least 10 people were killed overnight, including three children, and more than 140 were injured by missiles that had hit homes in northern and central Israel, authorities said, according to Reuters.

Rescue teams combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in strikes, using flashlights and sniffer dogs to look for survivors.

Following the fresh exchange of missiles, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran does not want its conflict with Israel to expand to neighbouring countries unless the situation is forced, adding its response had been based on self-defence.

Araghchi said Tehran had been responding to foreign aggression, and that if this aggression stopped, Iran’s reactions would also cease.

The foreign minister said the Israeli strikes on the offshore South Pars gas field that Iran shares with Qatar were a “blatant aggression and a very dangerous act”.

“Dragging the conflict to the Persian Gulf is a strategic mistake, and its aim is to drag the war beyond Iranian territory,” he said.

The foreign minister accused Israel of seeking to sabotage ongoing Iran-US nuclear talks, which, according to him, could have opened the way for an agreement. Tehran was set to present a proposal this Sunday during a sixth round of talks, which were cancelled following recent escalations.

“Israel’s attack would never have happened without the US green light and support,” Araghchi said, adding Tehran does not believe American statements that Washington had taken no part in recent attacks.

“It is necessary for the United States to condemn Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities if they want to prove their goodwill.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the US military was “operating in the air, on land and at sea to shoot down Iranian missiles fired at Israel”. “US jet fighters, Navy destroyers and ground-based air-defence systems had [been] positioned to help counter any attack”, it said, citing US officials.

Axios quoted a US official as saying that Israel has urged the Trump administration to join the war, but said currently the administration was not considering it.

Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies, as interceptor rockets were launched in response. The military lifted its shelter-in-place advisory nearly an hour after issuing the warning.

Israeli media said at least 35 people were missing after a strike hit Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv. A spokesperson for the emergency services said a missile hit an eight-storey building there and while many people were rescued, there were fatalities.

It was unclear how many buildings were hit overnight.

The latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11pm on Saturday (1am PKT Sunday), when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters.

Around 2:30am local time (4:30am PKT), the Israeli military warned of another incoming missile barrage and urged residents to seek shelter.

So far, at least 13 people in Israel have been killed and over 300 others injured since Iran launched its retaliatory attacks on Friday.

Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini, the spokesperson for the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said in a televised statement that Israel’s fuel production facilities for fighter jets and energy supply centres were targeted with a large number of drones and missiles, Press TV reported.

The IRGC spokesperson also claimed that the IRGC aerospace defense system had “successfully intercepted and destroyed” three Israeli cruise missiles, 10 drones, and dozens of “hostile mini-drones in the affected regions”.

The elite force warned Tehran’s attacks will be “heavier and more extensive” if Israel continues its hostilities.

Yemen’s Houthis also said they targeted Israel in coordination with Iran, the first time a regional group has publicly announced joint cooperation on attacks with Tehran.

The Yemeni group targeted central Israel’s Jaffa with several ballistic missiles in the last 24 hours, military spokesperson Yehya Sarea said in a televised address.

“Triumphing for the oppressed Palestinian and Iranian peoples […] This operation was coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian army against the criminal Israeli enemy,” he added.

Situation ‘under control’ after oil depot hit

The Israeli military warned Iranians living near weapons facilities to evacuate, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks by Israel so far were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.

In Iran, nearly 140 people have been killed since Friday, with 78 on the first day of Israel’s campaign, and scores more yesterday, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.

The Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack, Iran said, but added the situation was under control.

A fire had erupted after an Israeli attack on an oil refinery near the capital while Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s defence ministry building, causing minor damage, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.

At the Tehran Oil Refinery, fuel production, supply and distribution continue without disruption, Iran’s Student News Network reported after an overnight fire following an Israeli strike took place at a fuel tank unrelated to the refinery.

Similarly, Iran’s oil ministry told state media today that operations at the Isfahan refinery continue without disruption, denying online reports of an incident or attack against the facility.

Trump distances US from strikes on Iran, warns against attacks on it in ‘any way’

US President Donald Trump said earlier today that if Iran attacks the United States in “any way, shape or form”, it would face the might of the US military “at levels never seen before”.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the US had nothing to do with an attack on Iran overnight and that “we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”

Three drones were launched toward the Ain al-Asad air base housing US forces in western Iraq following Israel’s strikes on Iran, the Associated Press reported, citing a US military official and a second US official.

The drones were shot down, the officials said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the report.

AP further said that for a second day, supporters of armed factions in Iraq held a demonstration in Baghdad to denounce Israel’s bombing of Iran but did not attempt to breach a high-security zone where the US Embassy is located.

Germany, France, UK offer Iran talks over nuclear programme

Meanwhile, Germany, France and Britain are ready to hold immediate talks with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme in a bid to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said.

Wadephul, who is on a visit to the Middle East, said he was trying to contribute towards a de-escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran, adding that Tehran had previously failed to take the opportunity to enter into constructive talks.

“I hope that’s still possible,” Wadephul told German public broadcaster ARD late on Saturday.

“Germany, together with France and Britain are ready. We’re offering Iran immediate negotiations about the nuclear programme, I hope ]the offer] is accepted.”

“This is also a key prerequisite for reaching a pacification of this conflict, that Iran presents no danger to the region, for the state of Israel or to Europe.”

Tehran called off nuclear talks that Washington had said were the only way to halt Israel’s bombing. Netanyahu claimed Israel’s strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear programme “possibly by years” and rejected international calls for restraint.

US intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have “repeatedly said Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon before Israel” launched its attacks on the Islamic Republic this week, AP noted.

Trump had warned Iran of worse to come, but said it was not too late to halt the Israeli campaign if Tehran accepted a sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme.

A round of US-Iran nuclear talks that was due to be held in Oman on Sunday was cancelled, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying the discussions could not take place while Iran was being subjected to Israel’s “barbarous” attacks.

Gas field attack

In the first apparent attack to hit Iran’s energy infrastructure, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at the world’s biggest gas field after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.

The South Pars field is located offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province and is responsible for the lion’s share of gas production in Iran, the world’s third largest gas producer after the United States and Russia.

The strike caused a fire, which has been extinguished, the Iranian oil ministry said. The fire broke out in one of the four units of Phase 14 of South Pars, halting production of 12 million cubic metres of gas, Tasnim said.

Iran produces around 275 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year or some 6.5pc of global gas output, and consumes it domestically as it cannot export gas due to sanctions.

Iran shares the field with Qatar, which calls the field North Field. Qatar produces 77 million tonnes of liquefied gas from the field with the help of global majors such as Exxon and Shell and supplies the gas to Europe and Asia.

Fears about potential disruption to the region’s oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9 per cent on Friday, even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.

An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said on Saturday that Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz, controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.

With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran’s people to rise up against their rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.

B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organisation, said on Saturday that instead of exhausting all possibilities for a diplomatic resolution, Israel’s government had chosen to start a war that puts the entire region in danger.

Tehran has warned Israel’s allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.

Israel sees Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.

Tehran has repeatedly said the programme is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However, UN’s nuclear watchdog IAEA reported it this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.