Name: UK and allies condemn Iran attacks on oil and gas facilities | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-19T16:28:29.000Z
Duration: 8 min 27 s
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In a joint statement, the leaders of the uk, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan have condemned in what they say are the strongest terms attacks by Iran on gas and oil installations.

After Israel struck the South Pause gas field on Wednesday, Iran responded with retaliatory attacks overnight throughout the Gulf and this has led to a sharp jump in global energy prices.

Adverbs of manner

Meanwhile, in a strongly worded post, Donald Trump warned Iran against further attacks in Qatar after extensive damage to energy facilities there.

Posting on Truth Social, the president said the U.S.

knew nothing about the Israeli strike on the South Paris gas field.

President Trump said if Iran attacks that hub again, the US would quote, massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars gas field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has has never seen before.

Qatar's state energy company says that gas facilities at its main site Raslafan were hit again by rockets early on Thursday morning.

It said they caused fires and further significant damage.

These are pictures of the aftermath of those initial strikes.

Huge fires could be seen from more than 30 kilometers away.

Iran's South Parse is part of the biggest natural gas field in the world with which both Qatar and Iran operate.

Well, as we mentioned, the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been speaking in the last couple of hours talking about the wider conflict.

He said Iran's ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit after combined strikes by the US and Israel.

Our objectives unchanged on target and on plan.

Destroy missiles, launchers and Iran's defense industrial base so they cannot rebuild.

Destroy their navy and Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

We've hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly.

Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all Ballistic missile attacks against our forces, down 90% since the start of the conflict.

The last job anyone in the world wants right now.

Senior leader for the IRGC or besiege temp jobs, all of them.

And to borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King In World War II, we've decided to share the ocean with Iran.

We've damaged OR sunk over 120 of their navy ships.

With battle damage assessments pending for many more.

See oftentimes we have to wait a few days on battle damage assessment to get the real number.

Their surface fleet is no longer a factor.

Their submarines they once had 11 are gone.

We wouldn't want to set a definitive time frame on that.

But as we've said, we're on plan, so we're looking at those metrics very closely, relaying that to the president and the national security team.

Well, let's go live now to Washington and our State Department correspondent, Tom Bateman.

Beyond what Pete Hexath was talking about there in terms of military targets, what did we learn about US Objectives in this war?

Well, I think the main point, I mean, I was in the room there was that although this war has changed significantly since day one, the message from the Pentagon and from Pete Hegseth has not.

And I think, I mean, he was quite deliberate, you know, saying, you know, we keep our focus.

The problem, I think, that the Americans have here now is that Iran is fighting a different war to the one the Americans started with, and

it's causing the US Significant problems.

And what we're not hearing in those briefings is how the Americans plan to deal with that.

So, you know, we heard again that the Americans say that they have been striking ballistic missile launches, launch sites, and

the missiles themselves continuing to strike Iran's navy and its naval fleet.

But, of course, the Iranians have been fighting largely with insurgent tactics that has allowed them to control the Strait of Hormuz, which has had this huge effect, of course, on global markets and the price of oil.

And we now have this sharply escalating war over the region's energy production infrastructure, which is really serious.

And there was really very, very little in that briefing about tactically how the Americans plan to deal with either of those things.

So the message hasn't changed since day one.

We did hear a little bit from General Kaine about attacking Iranian fast boats, which is about trying to stop the attacks or the harassment of shipping.

But generally, there was very, very little on, you know, the way that the Iranians sort of shifted the way they're fighting this war and what the Americans are actually doing in response to that.

And it was interesting to hear Peter Seth say that there was no definitive time frame for ending at the war.

But at the same time, looking at my notes from earlier, he said, addressing the American people, the media here, not all of it wants you to think that we are spinning towards an endless abyss, a forever war.

And that is a point that the administration is incredibly sensitive about, isn't it?

It's really sensitive about that because, of course, President Trump stood twice on election, in elections that he won on a platform of not repeating the mistakes of the past, not getting bogged down into an Iraq style war that goes on for years, that involves nation building, that tries to spread American ideals to parts of the Middle East.

Pete Hegseth has been really clear about that.

But the problem they have is there's significant influential part of the maga, President Trump's MAGA base that is saying exactly the opposite, that is suggesting they've been betrayed by the administration that has launched exactly that.

So the administration is extremely sensitive about that.

He launched an attack on the media once again saying it was unpatriotic, that it wasn't supporting the American war.

In fact, that was the first thing he talked about, not the conflict itself, it was the culture war at home, really that was the focus of his attention.

And also suggesting, again falsely, that it was the mainstream media that had run fake AI images that the Iranians had disseminated about the war and effectively accusing them to sort of rerunning Iranian propaganda.

And it's of course really been social media where this sort of torrent of AI images have proliferated.

And ironically, it is this administration that has loosened all of the regulations and rules on social media companies that allows them to run this material.

But I think, you know, it takes you to the issue that I think the administration is really determined to try and get grip control of the narrative on this conflict.

I just want to squeeze in one more question, very briefly if you would, with your response.

Are we going to get any clarification on President Trump saying that he didn't know that Israel was planning to strike the Iranian part of the South Pas gas field when it's been widely reported that he did, or at least that the administration did?

Well, I think we will because President Trump, as you know, within I think the next hour or so is due the White House meeting the Japanese premier.

So I'm sure there'll be a question on that if the press are in there.

Of course, you know, his claim that the Americans didn't know contradicts the briefings that the Israelis have been putting out after they struck oil depots earlier in the war.

The Americans were really unhappy about that.

So the Israelis have been saying that they're not doing anything without American consent or approval first.

So there's clearly a difference of description over the run up to that attack on South Pause.

And I would assume, you know quite strongly the president's going to be asked that question.