Israel on Thursday said that an Iranian missile attack struck an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa, but the damage was not “significant”, reported Al Jazeera.
The strikes by Iran came in retaliation for Israel’s attack on energy facilities linked to its South Pars gas field, the world’s largest gas reserve that it shares with Qatar.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Thursday that the damage from the Iranian strikes was “localised”.
Here are more top updates from the conflict in West Asia:
- Cohen also said that power was briefly disrupted after the strike on the Oil Refineries Limited facility, before being restored for “most customers”, reported Al Jazeera.
- Kuwait’s state oil firm KPC said its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by multiple drone attacks on Friday, causing a fire in some units, with no initial casualties reported, the state news agency said.
- Meanwhile, Iran has warned that it will show “zero restraint” if the country’s oil infrastructure is attacked again. “Our response to Israel’s attack on our infrastructure employed fraction of our power,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a social media post. “The ONLY reason for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation.” Araghchi added that any end to the conflict in West Asia “must address damage to our civilian sites”.
- On Friday, the Indian government said that domestic liquefied petroleum gas production has increased by about 40%. Sujata Sharma, joint secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, also told reporters that there has been no dry-out at retail outlets amid the conflict in West Asia. All refineries are operating at the highest capacity with adequate crude inventory, Sharma said.
- The police in Abu Dhabi on Friday said that they have arrested 109 persons of several nationalities for “filming sites” and for posting allegedly misleading information on social media. This came five days after 35 persons, including 19 Indians, were arrested in the United Arab Emirates for posting allegedly misleading information.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv acted alone when it struck facilities linked to the South Pars gas field. “[United States] President [Donald] Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks and we are holding out,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying by AFP.Trump had on Wednesday said that the US, which is attacking Iran alongside Israel, “knew nothing about this particular attack” on the gas field.
- Qatar has said that the attacks on its energy installations would reduce its export capacity of liquefied natural gas by 17%. They would take three to five years to repair, minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi stated, adding that Qatar will be “compelled to declare force majeure for up to five years on some long-term LNG contracts”.
- Washington said on Thursday that it may remove sanctions on Iranian oil stuck at sea to help lift pressure off global supplies and reduce prices. “It’s about 140 million barrels,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was quoted as saying by Reuters.
- The price of benchmark Brent crude slid to $105 a barrel on Friday, after spiking to $119 on Thursday. The price was $78 per barrel on February 27, a day before the conflict started. Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterbody connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, for most international commercial vessels. About 20% of global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.
- During a press conference, Netanyahu said that Israel and the United States were “winning and Iran is being decimated”. Tehran no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles, he added. “This war is ending a lot faster than people think,” said the Israeli prime minister, without specifying a timeline.
- Sri Lanka refused permission for the US to station two of its warplanes at an airport in the island’s south in early March, AFP quoted President Anura Kumara Dissanayake as telling Parliament on Friday.
- The two aircraft with eight anti-ship missiles were to be brought in from a base in Djibouti to the Mattala airport from March 4 to March 8, Dissanayake said. On March 4, the US Navy sank Iranian frigate IRIS Dena just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
- Ali Mohammad Naini, the spokesperson of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in a strike, state news agency Tasnim reported.
- Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan issued a joint statement on Thursday, expressing their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the [Hormuz] Strait”, reported Al Jazeera. The nations also called for “an immediate comprehensive moratorium on attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations”.
The US and Israel launched an attack on the Iranian government on February 28, claiming that Tehran’s action posed an existential threat to Israel. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security. Iran has retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region, and targeting major cities in Gulf countries and some ships.
Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.
Since the start of the conflict, Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz for most international commercial vessels. About 20% of global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.
The International Energy Agency has said that the fighting has caused the “largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”.
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