Name: Iran War: Trump warns Israel not to hit oil and gas sites as energy crisis deepens | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-20T23:01:50.000Z
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Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has tonight vowed not to strike a key Iranian gas field after being publicly chastised by his ally in the war with Iran.

Past perfect

President Trump had warned Israel not to carry out similar strikes after yesterday's attack on South Pas.

Participle clauses

Iran's response, striking the Qatari side of the gas facility, caused markets to surge.

And this afternoon, Iran attacked Haifa oil refinery, the largest oil processing facility in Israel.

In a new conference just in the last few hours, Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel had acted alone against that gas compound, but

that the US And Israel were achieving goals at lightning speed, as he put it, with close coordination.

Our chief North America correspondent, Gary O' Donoghue has the latest from Washington.

But does Israel and the US have the same ends in sight?

After Israel hit Iran's South Pas gas field yesterday, a key source of domestic energy for Iran's civilian population, Tehran retaliated, striking Qatar's Ras Lafan processing plant, part of the biggest natural gas field in the world.

Overnight, before greeting the Japanese Prime Minister at the White House, the president had already criticized Israel's actions, saying he'd known nothing about the targeting of civilian energy infrastructure and Israel wouldn't do it again.

Netanyahu about attacking the oil and gas fields.

I told him, don't do that, and he won't do that.

It's coordinated, but on occasion he'll do something, and

if I don't like it, and so we're not doing that anymore.

And then an extraordinary historical slap in the face for Japan when one Japanese reporter asked why allies hadn't been warned about the start of the war.

Who knows better about surprise than Japan?

Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?

Israel continues to face drone and missile strikes from Iran.

The latest to get through hitting a critical oil refinery in the port city of Haifa.

President Trump started this war of choice because he said Iran's nuclear program posed an imminent threat to the United States.

Administration officials went out of their way to say they weren't targeting Iran's energy infrastructure.

But questions have loomed over diverging war aims, with Israel's focus on assassinations and this latest attack on the gas field.

Earlier at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said there was no timeline for the ending of the war, but

appeared to acknowledge Israel's aims might differ.

We have allies pursuing objectives as well.

I mean, President Trump was very clear about that at the beginning of the day.

Israeli officials had insisted that Iran's South PAS gas field wasn't just a civilian facility, but

also used for military purposes and therefore a legitimate target come the end of the day.

And the tone from the Prime Minister was markedly different.

Fact number one, Israel acted alone against the Slawiya gas compound.

Fact number two, President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks and we're holding out late afternoon at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

And US B52 bombers are on their way for their latest mission.

No clear view yet how long this conflict will last and what will bring it to an end.

Well, the attacks on the energy infrastructure in Iran and the Gulf have caused oil and gas prices to surge around the world.

The cost of gas for the UK is now double what it was before the war.

And there are warnings that inflation is likely to rise again.

The bank of England left interest rates unchanged today at 3.75%.

Here's our economics editor, Faisal Islam.

Terminals, refineries and tankers targeted.

Some of the world's most important gas and oil facilities lying in ruins.

The global economy staring into the abyss.

And so this morning, global gas and oil prices exploded too.

This is what that looked like for the UK even though not much gas comes from Qatar and not at all comes from Iran.

Physically, the shock waves affect the market prices.

And you can see there, up it goes, enough to add 20 to 30 pounds a month to typical bills if it sustains, but

not as much as we saw back in 2022 during the painful Ukraine energy shock.

And this time it's a bit closer to what we saw in 2022.

This is the UK Brent oil price in some Asian markets We're already seeing $170 for a barrel.

And then there are all the other commodities affected.

Urea, important for fertilizer, jet fuel at record levels.

Wheat, aluminium, steel, to some of it trapped in the Straits of Hormuz on ships, others by products of oil and gas.

So not yet a full blown energy shock, but it is pretty shocking.

A wave of inflation washing up here and everywhere.

And that is most acutely seen here at the bank of England.

I mean, we could be looking at 4 or 5% inflation.

Well, I don't think I'm going to speculate on that.

You're correct that we are now looking at a path of inflation which is not the one we were looking looking at the last meeting where I said I thought it would come down to target by May.

But we're not in the position we were in a few years ago because the backdrop to this is different.

The best and most appropriate solution to this problem is not monetary policy.

Up until this Iran war, there was every expectation that today the bank of England would have cut interest rates.

A unanimous hold and even some talk that if the conflict persists that rates might have to go up.

This uncertainty is feeding into markets for government borrowing and so also fixed rate mortgages with astonishing speed.

Certainly people are panic buying mortgages, which on one hand is probably the worst thing to do because that encourages lenders to increase their rates.

We noticed last week that the lender offering the most competitive two year fixed rate was at 3.9% within 24 hours because demand was exceeding their expectations.

A further 24 hours later is now doing a two year fixed rate at 4.6%.

Talk of multiple rate rises was played down by the bank.

Blockades and infernos a long, long way from home.

Well, at that news conference a little earlier, Israel's Prime Minister denied that he had dragged America into the war with Iran.

He outlined Israel's goals, removing the nuclear and ballistic missile threat and creating the conditions for Iranian people to grasp their freedom.

Let's get more on that from Lucy Williamson in Jerusalem tonight and your assessment of everything we heard there from Benjamin Netanyahu.

Well, the Israeli Prime Minister was again very keen to send the message of mission accomplished when it came to the war in Iran.

He said Iran could no longer enrich uranium, could no longer produce ballistic missiles.

But of course, Iran still has its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

And I can tell you that since that press conference ended, we have had four sets of of alerts here in Jerusalem and heard four sets of interceptions overhead warning of missiles incoming.

It's no secret that Benjamin Netanyahu would like to see regime change in Iran and that's something he was asked about tonight.