LIVE: US knew nothing about South Pars strike; no more Israeli attacks on gas field: Trump

Trump posts on Truth Social: “Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility. NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar - In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, 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. 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, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Qatar said Thursday that Iranian missile attacks damaged more liquefied natural gas sites in the energy-rich nation, “causing sizable fires and extensive further damage.” Qatar Energy, the nation's state-owned oil and gas company, announced the damage.

It said firefighters were working to halt the blazes and no one had been hurt so far.

After the killings of Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in an overnight strike and top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the day before, Iran retaliated by unleashing missile strikes against Israel overnight Wednesday.

Israel said an Iranian missile hit the occupied West Bank, marking the territory's first fatalities during the Iran war, though missile debris has damaged homes and businesses. The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least three people were killed in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Awa as Iran fired missiles toward Israel. At least 13 others were injured.

Iran also attacked Saudi Arabia’s vast Eastern Province, home to many of its oil fields, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

This came after Israel struck Iran’s massive South Pars natural gas field, part of the world’s largest such resource and a pillar of Iran’s energy supplies.

QatarEnergy said on X that a missile hit its massive Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, sparking a fire that caused “extensive” damage before it was extinguished. The company had already halted production there because of Iranian attacks.

The UAE early Thursday denounced Iran’s attacks targeting its Habshan gas facility and Bab field as a “dangerous escalation”. Authorities in Abu Dhabi say the gas operations had been shut down after interceptions over the sites.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister offered harsh criticism of Iran after its overnight attacks on his country, saying: “What little trust there was before has completely been shattered.”

Criticizing Iran's attacks on capital Riyadh, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said, “The attacks on my country and on my neighbouring countries that are not involved in this conflict — that's all I'm interested in. We're going to use every lever we have — political, economic, diplomatic and otherwise — to get these attacks to stop.”

Dozens of dogs and cats arrived in Athens on Wednesday with their owners aboard a special evacuation flight for Greeks with pets who were trapped by the current war in the Middle East.

Emotional scenes unfolded at Athens airport as small dogs leaped for joy after being let out of their special travel carry cases. The government-organized Aegean flight from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates carried 45 pets and 101 people.

The U.S. government's top intelligence official told lawmakers Wednesday that Iran's regime "appears to be intact but largely degraded” yet repeatedly dodged questions about whether President Donald Trump had been warned about the fallout from the weeks-old war, including Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, also stated in prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee that U.S. attacks on Iran last year had “obliterated” Iran's nuclear programme and that there had been no effort since then to rebuild that capability.

The statement was notable given Trump's repeated assertions that a war with Iran was necessary to head off what he said was an imminent threat from the Islamic Republic. Gabbard pointedly said that conclusion was the president's alone to draw as she declined to directly answer whether the intelligence community had likewise assessed that Iran's nuclear system presented an imminent risk to the United States.

“It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” she said at one point.

Five southern European nations are seeking an urgent solution for an unmanned Russian tanker drifting in the Mediterranean, warning the European Commission that it poses a major environmental threat, according to a letter confirmed by Spain's government on Wednesday.

The Arctic Metagaz is part of Russia's so-called “shadow fleet” transporting sanctioned fossil fuels. The tanker, carrying liquefied natural gas, was badly damaged in a suspected sea drone attack near Maltese waters earlier this month.

In a joint letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the leaders of Italy, Spain, Malta, Greece and Cyprus warned that the vessel poses an “imminent and serious risk” of a major ecological disaster, and requested to activate the bloc's civil protection mechanism.

In addition to the Spanish government, three EU government officials confirmed the contents of the letter. The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The five leaders urged a coordinated EU-level response to mobilize resources quickly, citing the tanker's damaged condition and hazardous cargo as key concerns.

“The precarious condition of the vessel, combined with the nature of its specialised cargo, gives rise to an imminent and serious risk of a major ecological disaster in the heart of the union's maritime space,” they wrote in the letter.