The Middle East entered its most dangerous week yet on Wednesday as Iran’s retaliatory energy threat against Gulf states followed an Israeli attack on the South Pars gasfield. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar as targets for imminent strikes and ordered evacuation. Oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the danger of a full-scale Gulf energy infrastructure war became critically real.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar and has been at the heart of Iran’s energy economy throughout the conflict. The Israeli attack — reportedly with US authorization — was the first time Iran’s fossil fuel sector had been directly targeted. Both Washington and Tel Aviv had previously avoided this step, but crossing it provoked Iran’s most specific and threatening military declaration of the war.
Iran’s state broadcaster identified Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities as imminent targets. All workers and residents were ordered to evacuate immediately. The governor of Asaluyeh called the US-Israeli strike “political suicide” and declared the war had entered a full-scale economic phase that would leave no part of the Gulf energy sector unaffected.
Brent crude climbed to $108.60 per barrel, while European gas markets surged more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already been reduced by 60% from pre-war volumes, a consequence of infrastructure damage and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had continued to ship its own crude through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors from doing so. The threat of Iranian strikes on Gulf energy facilities raised fears of a further catastrophic supply disruption.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that targeting energy infrastructure endangered global energy security, the environment, and millions of regional residents. The most dangerous week in the Middle East conflict had arrived — one defined not just by military strikes but by an explicit attempt to weaponize energy supply across the entire Gulf region. The world braced for what the coming hours would bring.