Iran escalated to direct economic warfare on Wednesday after Israeli forces struck the South Pars gasfield, threatening Gulf energy rivals with imminent strikes in what officials called a total economic war. The Revolutionary Guards named specific facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar and ordered immediate evacuation. Global oil prices surged toward $110 a barrel as the conflict’s economic dimension reached its most dangerous point.
South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, is shared between Iran and Qatar and central to Iran’s energy economy. The Israeli strike — reportedly with US consent — was the first deliberate attack on Iranian fossil fuel production in the conflict. Washington and Tel Aviv had previously avoided this step, but the decision to proceed marked a strategic shift that was immediately answered by Iran’s most expansive and credible military threat of the entire war.
Iran’s state media identified Saudi Arabia’s Samref refinery and Jubail complex, the UAE’s al-Hosn gasfield, and Qatar’s Mesaieed and Ras Laffan facilities as targets for strikes in the coming hours. All personnel were told to evacuate immediately. Iran’s Asaluyeh governor called the US-Israeli strike “political suicide” and declared the war had entered a phase defined by direct economic destruction.
Brent crude climbed nearly 5% to $108.60 per barrel, while European gas benchmarks jumped more than 7.5%. Gulf oil exports had already fallen 60% from pre-war volumes, battered by infrastructure strikes and Iran’s Strait of Hormuz blockade. Iran had continued to export its own crude through the strait unimpeded while blocking Gulf neighbors’ shipments, a strategic advantage that had persisted throughout the conflict and now threatened to be leveraged further.
Qatar’s government spokesperson Majid al-Ansari warned that targeting energy infrastructure threatened global energy security and the welfare of regional populations. The escalation to direct economic warfare had transformed the conflict into something with consequences far beyond the Middle East — a war in which the world’s energy supply, prices, and economic stability were all in the crosshairs. The coming hours would reveal how far Iran was prepared to go.