APTOPIX Lebanon Iran Israel US
Smoke and flame rise from a residential building following an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 18, 2026.
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Iran has broadened its strikes on major energy facilities in the Middle East, eliciting strong warnings from Gulf Arab states that called it a dangerous escalation that threatened to draw them into direct combat with Tehran. The strikes come after Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister and reportedly attacked the world’s largest natural gas field in Iran. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all denounced the Iranian attacks targeting their natural gas fields. Global prices surged after the attacks.
Iran has intensified its attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf, dramatically raising the stakes in a war that is sending shock waves through the global economy. Thursday’s strikes came in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a key Iranian natural gas field. They sent fuel prices soaring and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors directly into the conflict. Tehran targeted energy production, further stressing global supplies already under pressure because of Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. That’s a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Iran no longer can enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles.
