Israel-Iran Conflict: Oil Prices Rise

The European Union (EU) on Wednesday called on Israel to end its military operations on the territory of Lebanon after the latest Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut.

“The EU is deeply concerned about the ongoing Israeli offensive in Lebanon, which is already having devastating humanitarian consequences and threatens to trigger a protracted conflict,” the Union said through one of its spokespersons. “Israel should end its operations in Lebanon,” the EU added.

The Israeli army continues its operations in the territory of Lebanon, which it launched in retaliation for the rocket attack by the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah on the north of Israel on March 2. With its attacks on Israel, Hezbollah joined the side of Iran, which became the target of combat operations by the Israeli and American armies on February 28. In response to this escalation, Iran is attacking Israel as well as American interests in the Gulf states.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks have killed 968 people to date, including 116 children and 77 women, and wounded 2,432. In addition, more than a million people were displaced as a result of the war.

The Chief of General Staff of the Israeli army, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, on Wednesday criticized the increase in attacks by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling violence against Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians “morally and ethically unacceptable.”

Since the beginning of March, at least six Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Zamir stated that the situation, when the Israeli army has to deal with radicals inside the state during the war on several fronts, is unacceptable. He added that these attackers – Jewish settlers – do not represent the wider population of Israel. At the same time, he called on all relevant authorities to take action against this phenomenon and stop it “before it is too late”.

“Anyone who thinks these actions contribute to security is wrong – they are morally and ethically unacceptable and cause extraordinary strategic damage to the efforts of the Israeli armed forces,” Zamir added.

Iran has threatened to attack energy infrastructure across the Gulf region in retaliation for Israeli strikes on its largest gas field, the first targeted attacks on its fossil fuel production since the war began.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened to retaliate against several energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar “in the next few hours” after state media reported that missiles had hit its gas facilities at the giant South Pars field, which holds the world’s largest gas reserves.

The attacks on Iran’s South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, were widely portrayed in the Israeli media as attacks carried out by Israel with US approval.

The attack on the heart of Iran’s gas infrastructure represents a major escalation of US and Israeli military operations. Both countries have so far largely spared Iran’s oil and gas sector, helping to keep the global rise in oil prices under control.

Oil prices rose to $110 a barrel on Wednesday afternoon as a growing threat to oil and gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf sparked fears of further disruptions to global supplies amid the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian state media have identified the Samref refinery and Jubail petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia, the al-Hosn gas field in the United Arab Emirates, the Mesaieed petrochemical complex and holding company in Qatar, and the Ras Laffan refinery as regime targets.

Qatar also reacted to the attack on South Pars, strongly condemning it. “Israeli attacks on facilities linked to Iran’s South Pars energy zone, which is an extension of Qatar’s North Field zone, are a dangerous and irresponsible step in the midst of the current military escalation in the region,” a foreign ministry spokesman wrote on the X platform.

“Attacks on energy infrastructure pose a threat to global energy security, to the region’s residents and to the environment,” he added.

The South Pars gas field is the largest known natural gas field in the world and is located in the territorial waters of Iran and Qatar. 70 percent of Iran’s production is mined there, and Iran has been developing its infrastructure there since the late 1990s.

Iran accuses the Gulf states of allowing US forces to carry out attacks from their territory, AFP explains. Iranian state television published a list of “legitimate targets”, which included oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, saying they “will be targeted in the coming hours”.

Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv was hit by debris from Iranian missile attacks on Israel, the military told AFP. According to Israeli media, the damaged private planes were grounded at the airport.

AFP added that the Israeli military lifted censorship on the incident on Wednesday, but did not approve the publication of its exact date.

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that air defense systems had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles and a drone that were headed for the eastern part of the country. One unmanned aircraft was also shot down in the area of ​​the capital Riyadh, from where two strong explosions were reported.

Saudi Arabia is repeatedly the target of missile and drone attacks by Iran, which carries them out on neighboring countries in retaliation for American and Israeli strikes. Some of the Iranian attacks targeted vast energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and also the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh.

“Air defenses face ballistic threat in Riyadh,” the Saudi Ministry of Defense said on the X Network in a post shortly after announcing the downing of ballistic missiles and drones.

More than 2,300 civilians have been killed in the ongoing war in the Middle East since the end of February, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Wednesday.

According to the WHO, the most civilian victims – 1,400 – were reported in Iran, which has been the target of coordinated American and Israeli attacks since February 28. In retaliation, Tehran launches strikes against neighboring Gulf states and the Middle East, saying it targets American and Israeli interests.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army destroyed two bridges over the Lítání river in southern Lebanon. Israel says the pro-Iranian militant group Hezbollah used the bridges to smuggle weapons and move its operatives into southern Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Kac specified in his statement that the Israeli army took action against the use of Lebanon’s state infrastructure by Hezbollah to support terrorist activities. According to Kac, this is also a clear message to the Lebanese government that the state of Israel “will not allow such a reality”.

Before attacking the bridges, the Israeli army called on residents in the vicinity to evacuate. She advised them to move to the area north of the Zahrání River and refrain from any movement towards the south, as this could endanger their lives.

Iran has not attempted to restore its uranium enrichment capability after the Israeli-American attacks last June, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a US Senate hearing on Wednesday. According to her, the ongoing military intervention has greatly weakened the Iranian regime, however, it remains functional and will rebuild its armed forces if it survives.

In a written statement submitted to the Intelligence Committee, Gabbard said Iran’s nuclear capabilities were destroyed during the June war with Israel, in which the US was involved in a one-off bombing, and Tehran has since made no effort to resume uranium enrichment.

With this statement, she denied one of the arguments of US President Donald Trump and Israeli officials who defended the need for a military operation against Iran, namely that Tehran was trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that if the United States consulted Berlin about a US-Israeli war against Iran, the country “would advise them not to take this step.”

“With Israel and the United States, we share the goal that Iran can no longer pose any threat in the future, neither to Israel nor to neighboring states in the region,” Merz declared in the German parliament.

“For years and decades, the Iranian regime has broken one rule after another, spreading terror around the world and destabilizing neighboring countries. This regime is responsible for the current crisis in the region,” the chancellor said.

“But at the same time, we’ve made it clear that we still have a lot of questions about this war,” Merz added, adding that the U.S. and Israel had not presented “any convincing plan for how this operation could succeed.”

According to Merz, Washington did not discuss this conflict with Germany, but if it did, Berlin “would advise it not to take this step.” “As long as the war continues, we will not participate in it,” he promised and called for its end as soon as possible.

Iranian state television confirmed the death of Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib on Wednesday, who was killed by an Israeli attack in Tehran overnight. President Masúd Pezeškiján called the killing of the minister an “unjust murder” on the X network.

Khatib, who has been the intelligence minister since 2021, was among the members of Iran’s top leadership for whom the United States last week issued a $10 million bounty.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisra’el Kac was the first to report on his death.

Russia on Wednesday strongly condemned the “missile attack” on the nuclear power plant in the Iranian city of Bushehr, which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said was hit by a projectile on Tuesday evening.

Russia, whose experts work at the plant, condemned the attack as “irresponsible and completely unacceptable” and said it hit “the inner perimeter of the plant … just a few meters from the operating reactor”.

“We have repeatedly warned Israel and the United States that it is categorically inadmissible to threaten the lives and health of many Russian citizens present at the site,” said the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Marija Zakharova.

The IAEA announced on Wednesday, based on information from Iran, that the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran was hit by a “projectile” on Tuesday evening. The incident took place without casualties or injuries, as well as without material damage.

Iran’s military said it would attack energy infrastructure throughout the Persian Gulf in response to Wednesday’s US-Israeli attack on a gas facility in southern Iran.

In a statement, the Iranian military’s operational command, Khatam al-Anbiya, said it would “strike hard at the source of aggression and consider attacks on the fuel, energy and gas infrastructure” of the countries from which the attacks were carried out.

Only a short time before, state television reported that the United States and Israel were responsible for the incident in the South Pars gas field.

As a result of the war in the Middle East, Ukraine will face a shortage of missiles that it uses in the fight against Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated this in an interview with the BBC published on Wednesday.

Zelenskyy confirmed that he has a “very bad feeling” about the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on the war in Ukraine. Peace talks are “constantly postponed” as a result of this fighting.

“For Putin, the long war in Iran is a plus,” stated Zelensky. “In addition to (high) energy prices, this means the depletion of American reserves and the depletion of air defense manufacturers. So we (Ukraine) are facing the depletion of resources,” he clarified, emphasizing in particular the lack of Patriot missiles.

“America produces 60-65 missiles a month. Imagine, 65 missiles a month is about 700-800 missiles every year… And on the first day of the war in the Middle East, 803 missiles were used,” Zelenskyy explained.

Huge crowds are gathering at the ongoing funeral of the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, and the commander of the Basij unit, Gholamrez Soleimani, according to the BBC.