New Delhi: After Iran struck Qatar’s gas facilities in retaliation for Israel’s attack on the South Pars field, US President Donald Trump has claimed that the US knew nothing about the Israeli strike and has pledged that Israel will make no further attacks on the field.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Israeli forces had “violently lashed out” and struck the Iranian gas field “out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East.” He said Qatar “was in no way, shape, or form, involved” in the attack and stressed that Iran did not know this when it struck Qatar’s LNG facilities.While Trump said in his post that the US “knew nothing” about the attack, the Associated Press has quoted an unnamed person familiar with the matter as having said that the US was informed about Israel’s plans to strike the gas field but did not take part.Meanwhile, an Axios report stated that US and Israeli officials acknowledged the strike was coordinated with and approved by the White House. The report said Trump’s subsequent claim of no prior knowledge was inaccurate, with officials stating he had been briefed in advance.The aim, Israeli officials said, was to deter Iran from continuing to disrupt oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the first time that the Israeli Air Force has targeted Iran’s natural gas infrastructure, a key pillar of the Iranian economy.The South Pars gas field lies beneath the Gulf and is shared by Iran and Qatar, which calls its portion the North Field. Iran derives the majority of its natural gas from South Pars. Global oil prices climbed after news of the Israeli strike on the field broke.Trump went further in his Truth Social post, warning that the US would respond militarily if Qatar’s LNG sites were attacked again, but also noted that Israel would make no more attacks on South Pars.“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,” Trump wrote. “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.”‘Blatant attack’Qatar had already suspended LNG production on March 2 following an earlier strike on the Ras Laffan facility and a water tank at the power plant in Mesaieed Industrial City.Qatar has condemned the Iranian strikes as a “blatant attack” on its sovereignty and moved quickly to expel Iranian diplomatic personnel.State-owned QatarEnergy, the world’s largest LNG producer, confirmed two rounds of attacks on its facilities. An attack on Wednesday, March 18, caused “extensive damage” to the Pearl GTL, or Gas-to-Liquids, facility at Ras Laffan Industrial City. In the early hours of Thursday, several of its LNG facilities were hit by missiles, causing “sizeable fires and extensive further damage.” Emergency response teams were deployed and no casualties were reported in either attack.In its first response, Qatar’s foreign ministry described the strike as a “dangerous escalation” and a “flagrant violation” of sovereignty, warning that it reserved the right to respond under international law.Within hours, Doha escalated its diplomatic measures, declaring Iranian embassy military and security attaches persona non grata and ordering them to leave within 24 hours.Qatar also condemned Iranian attacks on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, calling them a serious threat to global energy security, navigation and the environment. It also formally raised the matter at the United Nations, sending its ninth letter to the UN Secretary General and chairman of Security Council detailing the attacks and warning of continued violations despite a recent resolution calling for a halt.Alongside these steps, Qatar launched urgent diplomatic outreach. According to Axios, Qatari officials contacted White House envoy Steve Witkoff and senior US officials after the first Iranian strike, seeking clarity on whether Washington had prior knowledge of the Israeli operation. Efforts were made to arrange a call between Trump and Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken with both the Qatari emir and Trump, calling for a halt to attacks on civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities.At the regional level, foreign ministers from a group of Arab and Islamic countries met in Riyadh on Wednesday and issued a joint statement on March 19 condemning Iran’s missile and drone attacks across the region, including on energy infrastructure.Separately, UAE’s foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan held calls with counterparts including Kuwait’s foreign minister and India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar, discussing the impact of Iran’s missile attacks on regional stability, the global economy and energy security. The ministers condemned the strikes as a violation of international law and affirmed the right of affected countries to take necessary measures to safeguard their sovereignty, as per the UAE readout.Ras Laffan Industrial City, about 80 kilometres northeast of Doha, is the world’s largest LNG production and export hub. It generates roughly a fifth of global LNG supply. All of Qatar’s LNG cargoes leave the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz.QatarEnergy exported approximately 81 million metric tonnes of LNG in 2025, according to Reuters, and has expansion plans that would take its capacity to 142 million tonnes per annum by 2030, which would give it roughly a quarter of the global market.The bulk of its customers are in Asia, concentrated in China, Japan, India, South Korea and Pakistan. Global energy majors including ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, Eni and ConocoPhillips hold stakes in Qatari LNG projects. The state-owned company supplies most of its gas under long-term contracts.Rachel Ziemba, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Al Jazeera that the production pause Qatar had already imposed meant there would be no immediate fresh supply shock from the new attacks, but that the situation “risks prices staying high for longer.”India vulnerableIndia is among the most exposed countries to disruption at Ras Laffan. India imported a record 27 million tonnes of LNG in 2024, a 20 percent increase year-on-year, according to Shell’s LNG Outlook 2025. Official data from the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell shows India imported over 22 million metric tonnes in just the first ten months of the current fiscal year.The country was already on course to become the world’s third-largest LNG importer by 2032, after China and Japan.The majority of India’s LNG imports are sourced from Qatar under long-term supply agreements, with roughly half of all Indian LNG shipments transiting the Strait of Hormuz.Unlike crude oil, India holds no strategic reserves of LNG. Stocks are maintained as working inventory at regasification terminals such as Dahej, Hazira, Kochi and Ennore, which together cover roughly one to two weeks of import requirements, Go Katayama, principal insight analyst for LNG and natural gas at Kpler Insight, told the BBC. He added that the 13 LNG cargoes loaded out of Qatar between February 10 and 26 and currently making their way to India could be among the last deliveries until passage through the Strait of Hormuz normalises.About half of India’s piped gas supply is met through domestic production by companies such as ONGC and Reliance, which provides a partial cushion. The government has indicated it will prioritise households using piped gas and CNG vehicles in the event of tightening supply.