Fears oil will hit $200-a-barrel as Iran targets Saudi and Qatar as Tehran wages ‘full-scale economic war’ on the West

Iran last night threatened to cripple the global energy market with a ‘full-scale economic war’ by increasing missile attacks on oil and gas facilities.

With the Middle East crisis greatly escalating, facilities in neighboring Gulf countries were evacuated after the regime threatened to hit them with attacks “in the coming hours.”

This followed Israel’s airstrike on the world’s largest natural gas field, South Pars, in Iran.

Donald Trump said he ‘knew nothing’ about the attack but threatened to blow up the entire facility if Iran continued to attack Qatar with ‘a force and force that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.’

“I do not want to allow this level of violence and destruction because of the long-term consequences it will have on the future of Iran,” he said in a post on Truth Social, adding that he “will not hesitate” to respond.

Iran’s attacks on Qatar continued this morning with the country’s liquefied natural gas facilities being set on fire.

Qatar said firefighters extinguished a major LNG facility hit by Iranian missile strikes.

Production was halted here after previous attacks, but the latest wave of missiles caused “large fires and further damage”, it said.

Oil prices rose 5 percent yesterday as the markets reacted to Iran’s new leader’s statement that energy fields in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar “have become direct and legitimate targets.”

Eskandar Pashas, ​​the regional governor of Iran, declared: ‘The pendulum of war has turned into a full-scale economic war.’

Fuel prices for British motorists have risen to the highest level in more than 18 months. In another sign that the economic pain is hurting, Donald Trump authorized foreign-flagged ships to carry fuel to the United States.

Yesterday Keir Starmer warned that the longer the crisis lasts, the worse its impact will be on the cost of living.

A refinery in Iran’s South Pars gas field is seen after it was previously hit by an Israeli drone at Kangan in Iran’s Bushehr province

Yesterday Keir Starmer warned that the longer the crisis lasts, the worse the impact on the cost of living will be

On another dramatic day in the Middle East:

• Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei swore revenge after many chiefs of the Islamic regime were assassinated in US-Israeli bombings;

• The World Health Organization warned that it was making preparations against the possibility of using nuclear weapons in Iran;

• US Federal Reserve says war will increase inflation and hit ‘disposable personal income’;

• At least 12 people died in Beirut as Israel stepped up bombings;

• The Ministry of Defense announced that British pilots and gunners destroyed more than 40 Iranian UAVs.

This comes after the Royal Navy said it did not want to send warships to the Middle East because the situation was ‘too fluid’.

Yesterday’s attack on the Pars gas field was the first reported attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure since the war began at the end of last month.

Iran, which accused the Gulf countries of allowing US forces to launch attacks from its territory, attacked with a new missile salvo; One of them hit an air base in the UAE where British and Australian soldiers were located, while the others hit Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

This will further fuel fears of an energy supply shortage that is already the worst ever, surpassing the oil crisis of the 1970s.

At the center of the crisis is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes and up to 10 million barrels of oil per day are choked.

This caused oil prices to rise from the pre-war $72 to almost $110, prompting Iran to tell the world to get ready for $200 per barrel.

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform AJ Bell, said: ‘Iran’s threat to retaliate against regional energy infrastructure following Israel’s attack on the massive South Pars gas field has helped raise the temperature once again.

‘Any solution to blocking the Strait of Hormuz looks quite distant at this point, and energy markets are likely to remain unstable unless progress is made on this front.’

President Trump last night fueled an international war of words by threatening that the US could leave security of the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane to countries, including the UK, that have ‘failed’ to respond to his request for warships to secure the waterway.

The US President claimed that such action would ‘quickly mobilize some of our unresponsive ‘Allies’!’

President Trump ignited an international war of words last night by threatening that the United States could abandon the security of the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane (file image)

In a post on the Truth Social platform, he mocked European countries: ‘I wonder… what happens if we let the countries that use it – we don’t – be responsible for the so-called ‘Straight’?

As oil prices rose, the White House announced a pause on the 100-year-old shipping law known as the Jones Act, which requires goods to be transported on U.S.-flagged ships.

It has been blamed for making energy more expensive, and in a sign of growing economic pain, Mr. Trump has authorized a 60-day suspension of allowing foreign-flagged ships to carry goods, including fuel.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Sir Keir defended his approach, insisting he would not allow UK forces to be dragged into a ‘wider war’. He has so far resisted Mr Trump’s demands that the Royal Navy be deployed to the strait.

Britain has sent the air defense destroyer HMS Dragon to help defend Cyprus against drones and missiles, but the ship is making slow progress.

The US orders the redeployment of a ‘911 force’ of 2,500 marines from Japan to the Middle East; This signaled the possibility of American soldiers’ boots on the ground in Iran. Iran’s deputy foreign minister said it would be a ‘reckless’ move and his country would fight for as long as needed.

Meanwhile, the RAC’s latest figures show that the average price of a liter of petrol has risen by 10p to around 143p since the start of the war. Diesel rose by 20 pence to almost 163 pence.

The government’s borrowing costs also rose yesterday as investors abandoned British bonds, known as gilts. Bonds around the world have been hit by the turmoil in the Middle East, but Britain’s bonds are seen as particularly vulnerable as it has the highest inflation among the G7 group of developed economies.

Traders are also nervous about the possibility of a government bailout of household energy customers, similar to the subsidies given to ratepayers when prices soared at the start of the Ukraine war.

Thomas Pugh, chief economist at accounting firm RSM UK, said this, together with the country’s ‘weak economic situation’, meant Britain was ‘more vulnerable to shocks than many comparable countries’.