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Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued an urgent warning Wednesday of imminent strikes on major oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
The threat follows an attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, which Tehran’s military command vowed would trigger a "severe response."
Iranian media reported that drone strikes targeted the third and sixth phases of the South Pars gas field in Asaluyeh in Iran's southern Bushehr province Wednesday, halting production at two refineries with a combined capacity of approximately 100 million cubic meters per day.
Iranian state media said several petrochemical assets were taken offline "in order to control and prevent the speed of fire."
South Pars is the world's largest natural gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
It is an extension of Qatar's North Field. Qatar, the world's second-largest LNG producer, has already been forced to suspend production because of an earlier Iranian drone attack on its main LNG facility.
The governor of Asaluyeh, Iran's gas and petrochemical hub, Eskandar Pasalar, condemned the South Pars attack as "political suicide" by the U.S. and Israel and said it marks "a new phase of war equations."
"The pendulum of war has swung to a full-scale economic war," Pasalar said in comments to state media.
"Energy security in the region has reached the point of zero," he added.
Iran's central military command said a severe response to the attack would come soon. Iran has threatened to retaliate against oil and gas fields and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
The IRGC issued an "urgent warning" to citizens and residents near several facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, describing them as "direct and legitimate targets" and warning they could be struck "within the coming hours," according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Sites listed by the IRGC as targets include the SAMREF refinery and Jubail petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia, the Al Hosn gas field in the UAE, and the Mesaieed petrochemical complex and Ras Laffan refinery in Qatar.
The IRGC called on civilians, residents and employees to "immediately leave these areas and move to a safe distance without delay," saying repeated warnings had previously been issued to Gulf governments.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari directly blamed Israel for the attack. "Israel's targeting of facilities linked to Iran's South Pars gas field, which represents an extension of Qatar's North Field, is a dangerous and irresponsible step amid the current military escalation in the region," al-Ansari wrote on X.
"Targeting energy infrastructure constitutes a threat to global energy security, as well as to the peoples of the region and its environment," he said, calling on all parties to exercise restraint, adhere to international law and work toward de-escalation.
The attack came as the U.S. and Israel have continued a joint offensive on Iran since Feb. 28, killing around 1,300 people so far, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries hosting U.S. military assets.
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