Israel’s prime minister is set to hold his first press conference in more than a week at 1830 GMT (2:30 pm ET).
There are various reports about a rift between the US and Israel and Trump did not appear to be happy about the attacks (and counter-attacks) on energy infrastructure.
Just now a report from the Israeli Broadcasting Corp, citing sources, says the joint Israel–US campaign is expected to continue for “several more weeks”.
Trump wrote in the middle of the night:
Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has
violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field
in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The
United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country
of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it
have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not
know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars
attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG
Gas facility. NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this
extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely
decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar – In which
instance the United States of America, with or without the help or
consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars
Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen
or witnessed before. I do not want to authorize this level of violence
and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have
on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not
hesitate to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
President DONALD J. TRUMP
Iran officials also said that the counter-attack was only a portion of their capabilities and there will be much more to come if their energy is attacked again. I take all of that as tough talk but a sign that no one wants to blow up the energy infrastructure that would take years to rebuild.
Update: An Israeli official said they have not yet reached that halfway point of the war.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.