The United States was informed about plans for an Israeli strike on Iran’s massive offshore South Pars natural gas field Wednesday but did not take part in it, according to a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is escalating pressure on the region's energy sector, the price of oil surged another 5% to over $108 a barrel on international markets,
increasing the cost of gasoline and other goods while squeezing the global economy.
The U.S. and Israel have kept up the pressure with strikes on Iran, while in Lebanon, Israel is attacking Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and massing forces to the border. More than a million people in Lebanon have been driven from their homes during the war, authorities there say, or roughly 20% of the population.
Iran has been striking its Persian Gulf neighbors’ energy facilities since the war started on Feb. 28, and has made the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel — through which one-fifth of the world’s oil travels — nearly impassable. Iran and Hezbollah have also been firing drones and missiles at Israel.
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has killed at least 1,300 people in Iran, more than 960 in Lebanon and 14 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. The U.S. military says 13 U.S. service members have been killed and about 200 wounded.
Iran’s Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in only his second written statement since becoming the new supreme leader, promised retaliation for Israel’s killing of the nation’s top security official a day earlier, saying: “All blood has its price.”
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The foreign ministry said it stood in solidarity with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and condemned attacks on their oil and gas facilities. It also condemned a reported Israeli attack on Iran’s natural gas field as “a dangerous escalation” and “a flagrant violation of international law.”
The Saudi Civil Defense agency said the four were hurt when shrapnel fell on a residential area in Riyadh, causing limited damage. It said they were not Saudi citizens but did not provide their nationalities.
The agency warned that attacking civilian sites was a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Ras Laffan Industrial City is the largest liquefied natural gas export facility in the world, according to the website of QatarEnergy, the state-owned oil and gas company.
On X, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and said it marked a dangerous escalation. The ministry wrote that Qatar would not hesitate to respond to attacks on its security and sovereignty.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry made the statement on X. The Ministry of Defense, also on X, said the fire broke out when a ballistic missile from Iran hit the facility.
The state-owned oil and gas company, QatarEnergy, said the fire had caused “extensive” damage.
Iran launched five ballistic missiles toward Qatar on Wednesday, the defense ministry said, and the country’s military intercepted all of them except the one that fell at Ras Laffan.
The United States was informed about Israel’s plans to strike Iran’s massive South Pars natural gas field, but did not take part in it, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The person, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, would not say if the U.S. administration agreed with the Israeli decision to attack the gas field — part of the world’s largest such resource and a pillar of Iran’s energy supplies.
Sayyed Ragheb was already struggling to keep his family afloat, earning less than $100 a month. Now he fears it will get even worse after Egypt hiked fuel prices because of the Iran war.
Egypt is one of the few countries in the Middle East not directly affected by the war, now in its third week with no sign of abating. It’s not part of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, and it hasn’t been targeted by Iranian missile and drone fire, like Arab Gulf nations, or by Israeli bombardment, like Lebanon.
But the nation of more than 108 million people is feeling the conflict’s repercussions. Soaring energy prices forced the government to implement a steep hike in the prices of subsidized fuel and cooking gas.
That’s having a domino effect on the prices of other goods and services in Egypt’s struggling economy. Moreover, it comes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when families traditionally hold large dinner gatherings, and ahead of the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a major shopping season when people buy new clothes, especially for children.
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Masoud Pezeshkian’s statement on X said such attacks would not help Israel and the United States.
“This will complicate the situation and could have uncontrollable consequences, the scope of which could engulf the entire world,” he wrote.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said in Brussels on Wednesday that he’s conveyed the offer to both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
EU-member Cyprus enjoys close relations with both countries.
Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya warned the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that “The longer hostilities persist in the region, the greater the risks for Syria and its people.”
U.N. Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Claudio Cordone said Israeli helicopter and drone operations in Syria have increased, and the country has also seen debris crashing from intercepted Iranian missiles and drones as well as one incident of shelling from neighboring Lebanon attributed to Hezbollah.
“Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have claimed both Lebanese and Syrian lives, and resulted in approximately 140,000 persons, mostly Syrians, crossing into Syria seeking safety,” Cordone said.
In addition to the military spillover, Msuya said , disruptions to shipping and rising prices for fuel, fertilizer and other essential items “could deal a serious blow to Syria’s already fragile economy — just as it begins to recover and reconnect with the world after years of conflict and isolation.”
Cordone said the conflict has already affected cross-border trade and forced Syrian authorities to reduce electricity supplies.
However, Fed policymakers still expect to cut their key rate once in 2026.
For now, they left short-term interest rates unchanged for the second straight meeting at about 3.6%. In a statement Wednesday, the central bank said that the “implications of developments in the Middle East for the U.S. economy are uncertain.”
Still, by keeping their forecast for a rate cut this year and next — the same projections that they made in December — central bank policymakers appear to expect the gas price spike from the Iran war to have a largely temporary effect on inflation and the economy. Policymakers also foresee unemployment remaining unchanged by the end of this year, a more optimistic outlook than most outside economists.
Whether that turns out to be true will largely depend on the length of the conflict. The officials expect inflation to fall back to 2.2% in 2027 and hit the Fed’s 2% target in 2028.
Fed officials now expect that inflation will be 2.7% at the end of this year, up from their December forecast but slightly below the 2.8% it reached in January. They expect core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, to also finish the year at 2.7%, up from a previous forecast of 2.5%. The Fed considers core prices a better measure of longer-run inflation. Consumer prices will spike higher in the coming months as gas prices have soared, but those increases could unwind by the end of the year, particularly if the conflict ends soon.
Debris from the interceptions fell across several areas of the city, the Defense Ministry said, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
It’s an attempt to blunt the impact of rising oil prices on the country’s treasury, as energy is partially subsidized in Egypt, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told reporters Wednesday. The rule takes effect March 28.
Also, all Cabinet headquarters buildings will switch off their electricity after 6 p.m. starting next week, he said.
Egypt is not directly affected by the war, however the country is a net energy importer and is bracing for new inflationary waves as oil prices rise.
A hole ripped through the ceiling, a kitchen with collapsing shelves and a balcony with patio furniture covered in debris.
This was the state of an apartment in central Israel Wednesday, where a cluster munition fired by Iran had killed an older couple the night before.
“That cluster bomb separated to dozens of smaller rockets and spread out on kilometers in the center of Israel,“ said military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, speaking to journalists at the scene.
The barrage of missiles Iran launched toward Israel overnight was in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful figures, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday.
Besides filling up their tanks, drivers will be able to buy only a 10-liter (6.2-gallon) container. The government set the maximum price of one purchase at 400 euros ($460).
At the same time, drivers of cars registered in Slovakia will pay a different price than foreigners. The Finance Ministry has yet to set the price. The measure will be initially effective for 30 days.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed Hezbollah was using the bridges over the Litani River to move fighters and smuggle weapons.
Wednesday’s strikes come as the Israeli military has sent more ground forces to the border with Lebanon.
Last week, Israeli strikes cut major roads and bridges in southern Lebanon, and Israel’s hard-line finance minister has threatened to make Beirut’s southern suburbs look like Gaza. The World Bank estimated the previous Israel-Hezbollah war cost Lebanon $6.8 billion in damage to physical structures.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s written statement was published in Iranian media on Wednesday, a day after Israel said it killed Iran’s top security official.
“Undoubtedly, the assassination of such a person shows the extent of his importance and the hatred of the enemies of Islam toward him,” he wrote. “All blood has its price that the criminal murderers of the martyrs must pay soon.”
This is only the second statement issued in Khamenei’s name since he became supreme leader to replace his father, who was killed at the start of the war. Israeli and U.S. officials believe the younger Khamenei was wounded in that initial wave of attacks on Iran.
The number of people killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the renewal of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah has risen to 968 Wednesday, up from 912 the day before, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
The death toll includes 116 children and 77 women. More than one million people have been displaced in Lebanon by the conflict.
The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched missiles across the border into Israel on March 2, two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, triggering the widening war in the Middle East. Israel has responded with widespread bombardment and a ground incursion.
In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the United Arab Emirates stressed that the targeting of energy infrastructure represents “a direct threat to global energy security.”
Vice President JD Vance made the comment in response to a question about the resignation of Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Vance says Trump “welcomes differences of opinion” from everyone. “That said,” Vance said, “whatever your view is, when the president makes a decision, it’s your job to help make that decision as effective and successful as possible.”
If you can’t do that, Vance said, “then it’s a good thing for you to resign.”
Most previous Iranian strikes have hit in eastern Saudi Arabia, close to Iran and home to major Saudi oil installations.
The kingdom’s air defenses have intercepted most of the incoming missiles, but strikes have killed at least two migrant workers and an American soldier at an air base in Al Kharj.
A senior British defense official says a credible plan to ensure ships can safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz is still a long way off.
Iran has effectively shut the vital oil route since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks last month. Trump has veered between demanding other countries send ships to open the strait and saying the U.S. does not need allies’ help.
The British government says it is talking to allies around the world about options, and has sent a team of military planners to U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East. But officials say discussions are at an early stage and focus on maintaining security after fighting has subsided.
U.K. Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said Wednesday the threat to shipping from Iran includes mines, fast attack boats, ballistic missiles, drones and other “asymmetric threats.”
He said it presents “a “significant military challenge” that requires “a multinational solution. We’re not anywhere near that at the moment.”
Vice President JD Vance says there is no risk that Trump would get the U.S. into a long-term conflict in response to a question about the consequences of the war in Iran.
Vance gave the answer to a reporter after delivering remarks in Auburn Hills, Michigan, on Wednesday.
He said, “I guarantee that the president of the United States is not interested in getting us in the kind of long-term quagmires that we’ve seen in years past.”
He says he knows how Trump thinks about national security. “That is not a risk with this president at all.”
U.S. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard danced around questions from a Democratic senator about whether there was an imminent threat of a nuclear attack from Iran. She told Sen. Jon Ossoff that it wasn’t the intelligence community’s job to determine what is an imminent threat against the U.S. and put that responsibility on Trump.
“The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president,” Gabbard said.
Ossoff accused her of avoiding a direct answer “because to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House.”
The sky lit up over the Riyadh late Wednesday and an interceptor missile flew overhead.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
“It’s pretty hard. I mean, times are tough for everybody right now,” Amanda Acosta, a Louisiana resident, told The Associated Press while filling up her car’s tank this week. “I’m getting way less gas and paying way more money.”
She isn’t alone. Pain at the pump has been one of the most immediate economic impacts of the conflict.
The U.S. is now a net exporter of oil, but that doesn’t mean America is immune to price spikes. And other parts of the world that rely more heavily of fuel imports from the Middle East, notably Asia, have seen starker energy shocks amid the war.
While the steep cost of crude oil is the top driver of gas prices today, a handful of other factors are also on the table.
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Plumes of smoke rising from Lebanese villages hit by Israeli bombardment could be seen from Israel’s side of the border Wednesday afternoon. Within Israeli territory, tanks massed in muddy lots near fields of yellow flowers.
The tense situation has remained largely unchanged from the day before. Overnight, a wave of Israeli strikes hit several neighborhoods in central Beirut and killed 10 people, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.
Unlike the last war with Hezbollah, most of the residents of northern Israel have stayed put, while in Lebanon, more than a million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation orders. Hezbollah has fired waves of rockets and drones into Israel, sometimes with little or no warning.
The head of an international shipmasters’ organization says seafarers must not be used as “pawns in a geopolitical conflict,” as international diplomats meet to discuss the plight of thousands of vessels trapped by the Iran war.
The U.N.’s International Maritime Organization says more than 3,000 vessels and 20,000 seafarers are stuck in and around the Strait of Hormuz. At least seven crew members have been killed since the conflict broke out last month.
Capt. Andrew Cook, secretary general of the International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations, said seafarers are “sitting on board a steel box, basically imprisoned, because they can’t get off the ship and the ship can’t move.” He said those on tankers are “surrounded by oil and gas. And some of them are being targeted by missiles. So it isn’t a great place to be right now.”
The International Maritime Organization is holding a two-day meeting in London to discuss the crisis.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told lawmakers at a Senate hearing Wednesday that an unencumbered Iran could have developed missiles with a range of 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) that could strike Europe.
Ratcliffe also said Iran would have developed the ability to threaten the U.S. if it had continued to work on its booster technologies.
But the CIA director did not directly answer a question from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas regarding whether Iran could have had a missile to threaten the U.S. “in as few as six months.”
Ratcliffe told Cotton he was “right to be concerned.” But the CIA director did not provide a time frame for when Iran could have threatened Europe or the U.S. with a missile.
Days after launching the war, Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the U.S.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard dodged when asked by senators during a hearing about whether she had warned Trump about the likelihood of Iran attacking other Gulf nations and threatening ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I have not and won’t divulge internal conversations,” Gabbard said in response to questions from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner. “I will say that those of us within the intelligence community continue to provide the president with all of the best objective intelligence available to inform his decisions.”
Warner was clearly frustrated with Gabbard’s lack of a clear response and pointed repeatedly to Trump’s remarks that suggest he did not expect Iran to launch attack on other Gulf nations or close the Strait of Hormuz, which is vital for oil exports from the region.
The aircraft at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport were damaged by shrapnel from the missile interceptions, according to Israel’s airports authority.
Airport traffic has been severely curtailed since the war started.
Iranian state television confirmed the killing of Khatib, who the U.S. sanctioned in 2022 for alleged cyber-related activities against the U.S. and its allies. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian calling Khatib’s killing “an unfair assassination.”
It applies to goods shipped between U.S. ports to be moved on U.S.-flagged vessels. The 1920s law, designed to protect the American shipbuilding sector, is often blamed for making gas more expensive.
The moves highlight the increased pressure the Republican administration is under to ease soaring oil prices as the United States, along with Israel, wages a war with Iran without a foreseeable end date. Global oil prices have since spiked as Iran halted traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
U.S. companies will be allowed to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company after the Treasury Department eased sanctions, with some limitations, Wednesday as the Trump administration looks for ways to boost world oil supplies during the Iran war.
The Treasury issued a broad authorization allowing Petróleos de Venezuela S.A, or PDVSA, to directly sell Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, a massive shift after Washington for years had largely blocked dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector.
The move highlights the increased pressure the Republican administration is under to ease soaring oil prices as the United States, along with Israel, wages a war with Iran without a foreseeable end date. Global oil prices have since spiked as Iran halted traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
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Chancellor Friedrich Merz told German lawmakers Wednesday “we’re speaking at all levels with Washington” and “seeking trans-Atlantic agreement.”
He stressed that Germany shares many U.S. aims “but we can’t and won’t shy away from telling our partners honestly where we see things differently and where we have different interests.”
Merz said he still has questions about the war in Iran and there is still “no convincing concept for how this operation could succeed.”
He noted that Washington “didn’t consult us and said European help wasn’t necessary … we would have advised against pursuing this road the way it has been pursued at present.”
Germany is among the countries that say they won’t contribute to a military mission in the Strait of Hormuz as long as the war continues.
“Targeting fuel, energy and gas infrastructure in the aggressor country is our legitimate right and we will respond with force as soon as possible,” Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement.
