Live updates: Energy prices soar after Trump threatens Iran gas field; F-35 hit by 'suspected enemy fire'

European Union leaders, who were holding a summit in Brussels, said tonight that they condemn "any acts that threaten navigation or prevent vessels from entering and exiting the Strait of Hormuz."

The Strait, through which more than 20% of the world oil supply normally passes, has been essentially shut since the war with Iran began. As a result, oil prices have soared more than 40%.

E.U. leaders also called for "a moratorium on strikes against energy and water facilities."

In their statement, EU leaders also said they welcomed efforts to coordinate on a solution to "ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, once the conditions are met." Those conditions would be once hostilities end.

The damage from missile attacks on gas facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, yesterday and overnight will cost an estimated $20 billion in annual lost revenue and will take up to five years to fix — which will impact supply to European and Asian markets, Qatar Energy said on X.

The strikes reduced the nation’s liquefied national gas export capacity by 17%, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said. 

No one was injured in the attacks, but Al-Kaabi said the strikes also attacked “global energy security and stability.”

The strikes damaged two liquified natural gas producing trains — which were joint ventures with ExxonMobil — and targeted the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids facility, which has a production sharing agreement with Shell. 

The U.S. is accelerating the deployment of thousands more Marines and sailors to the Middle East, according to two people familiar with the decision. 

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), made up of at least 2,200 marines, is expected to deploy from San Diego in the coming days, sooner than they were scheduled to leave, the people said. 

They said the 11th MEU will deploy on the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, and will likely have at least one, if not two, additional ships with them, meaning several thousand U.S. sailors will also be deploying. 

While the U.S. military has done an “outstanding job” so far in Iran, President Donald Trump “didn’t lay the groundwork” on the political side, John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Trump turned prominent critic, told NBC News today.

“He didn’t prepare the American people,” Bolton said. “He didn’t make what I think is the very strong case for regime change.” Congress and America’s allies had also been left in the dark, he added.

“I’m very afraid most importantly of all, he didn’t cooperate with and assist the Iranian opposition,” Bolton said. “It’s very widespread, but poorly organized. And they are the people who are going to have to take a large part of the responsibility for pulling the regime apart at the top.”

The U.S. should be talking to generals in the regular army and defectors, who would come over to the American side, he said.

“As the regime comes apart because of the pressure we’re putting on it, find a way to remove it as it collapses, remove it and put a temporary military government in place,” he said. “We’re not going to do that on our own, but if we’re not helping the opposition, they may not be able to do it either.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that Iran will show "zero restraint" if its energy infrastructure is struck again.

"Our response to Israel’s attack on our infrastructure employed FRACTION of our power. The ONLY reason for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation," he wrote in a post on X. "ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are struck again."

“Any end to this war must address damage to our civilian sites," he added.

On Wednesday, Iran accused Israel of attacking infrastructure linked to South Pars, which is part of the world's largest gas reserves. The gas field, which is offshore in the Persian Gulf, is shared with Qatar.

While listing off Israeli military accomplishments in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to transform the Middle East "beyond recognition."

"The past will not return. Do you remember, how in the second day of the war, I promised you we are going to change the Middle East?" he said at a press conference. "We have indeed changed it beyond recognition."

"And might we have turned Israel into a regional power, and some might say that in certain areas, a global power," he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran is not able to enrich uranium, the key material needed to produce nuclear weapons, at the moment.

“I can already tell you, now that 20 days have passed, that Iran has no ability to enrich uranium at the moment, and no capability of manufacturing ballistic missiles," he said at a press conference. "We are continuing to completely crush these capabilities together with our great friend, the U.S."

He did not provide any evidence to support the claim.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shot down reports and criticism that Israel pressured the U.S. into starting the war with Iran.

"Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?" Netanyahu asked in his opening remarks at a press conference. "Come on. President Trump always makes his decisions on what he thinks is good for America. And may I add, I think what is also good for future generations."

Netanyahu then pointed to Trump's negative comments about Iran prior to the war and to the president's decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Critics have jumped on comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the days after the war began. At the time, Rubio said: “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Rubio has since walked back the comments.

Netanyahu insists Israel didn't pressure U.S. into war with Iran

01:36

Iranian attacks have knocked out 17% of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy’s CEO told Reuters on Thursday.

Saad al-Kaabi said two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes. The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years, he said in an interview.

“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be — Qatar and the region — in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way,” said Kaabi, who is also Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs.

Hours earlier Iran had aimed a series of attacks at Gulf oil and gas facilities after Israeli attacks on its own gas infrastructure.

State-owned QatarEnergy will have to declare force majeure on long-term contracts for up to five years for LNG supplies bound for Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China due to the two damaged trains, Kaabi said.

Iranians attend a mass funeral for officials killed in the war

03:12

Iranians gathered to pay tribute to Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, and other officials who were killed this week, in what amounted to some of the biggest crowds since the war began.

"Trump, soon we will kill you," a mourner told NBC News' European partner, Sky News. "Netanyahu is not our target anymore. Our target is you. You killed our children to mock us and we will kill you to teach you a lesson in history."

Some protesters held Iranian propaganda pamphlets, with one showing what appears to be a drawing of President Trump holding a hand to his head and looking down.

“Trump is humiliated,” it says, alongside a picture of a blocked Strait of Hormuz. 

The U.S. intervention in Iran “would not be a success under any circumstances” if the country still has nuclear material, John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump turned prominent critic, told NBC News today. 

“Securing that material would be a high priority,” Bolton said, adding that he feared “it could be transferred to terrorist groups to other rogue states or other malicious actors.”

“It’s a highly uncertain environment, and the president has said he doesn’t want to put boots on the ground, but I never understood that to mean he would not try and get that material,” he said. When Trump talked about “boots on the ground,” Bolton said he thought the president was talking about “combat arms forces in sizable numbers.”

Securing Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which is believed to be entombed beneath some of its nuclear sites, would not be a small operation for American ground forces, he said, “but it’s not like an invasion.”

Asked by a reporter about the Pentagon's reported plan to ask Congress for $200 billion to fund the war with Iran, Trump said the request for that amount is "for a lot of reasons, beyond even what we're talking about in Iran."

"This is a very volatile world, and the military equipment, the power of some of this weaponry is unthinkable. You don't even want to know about it. Oh, you could end this thing in two seconds if you wanted to," the president added.

He said that the Pentagon is "being very judicious" with their funding request.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to confirm reporting on the funding request earlier today, saying even more money could be needed. He told a press briefing: "It takes money to kill bad guys, so we're going back to Congress to ensure we're properly funded for what's been done, and for what we may have to do in future."

Since the start of the war with Iran, gas prices across the United States have risen sharply. Nationwide, the average price has climbed from just under $3 per gallon in late February to about $3.89 as of March 19 — an increase of roughly 90 cents overall, including a rapid jump of more than 30 cents in just the past few days.

Most states have seen prices rise by more than 70 cents per gallon, with at least 11 states recording increases above $1. Some of the largest jumps are concentrated in parts of the South and West — including Arizona (+$1.17), Kentucky (+$1.07) and Utah (+$1.04) — though no region has been spared. Even in the Northeast, prices are up about 87 cents in New Jersey and 73 cents in New York.

Trump thought economic impact of Iran war 'would be worse'

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Appearing alongside Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office, the president told reporters that while oil prices have gone up in the wake of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, “I actually thought the numbers would be worse.”

“Everything was going great, the economy was great, oil prices were very low, gasoline was dropping too — I mean, we had $1.99, $1.85. And I saw what was happening in Iran and I said, ‘I hate to make this excursion but we have to do it,’ and I actually thought the numbers would be worse,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Before he decided to strike Iran, the president said, he thought, “Oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit.”

He added, “I thought it would be worse, much worse actually,” before saying, “It’s not bad and it’s going to be over with pretty soon.”

China today condemned Israel's targeting of Iranian leaders, saying it opposes the use of force and that the killing of state leaders and civilian targets was even more unacceptable.

"An early ceasefire and an end to the fighting is the common aspiration of the international community," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a regular news briefing.

His comments came after Israel said it killed several Iranian officials this week, including Iran's security chief, Ali Larijani.

"China urges the parties concerned to immediately halt military actions and prevent the regional situation from being pushed to an uncontrollable point," he added.

The United Arab Emirates condemned an Iranian attack on a gas facility in Qatar as a “terrorist attack” and “a direct threat to global energy security.”

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, said the hit on Ras Laffan Industrial City resulted in “significant damage,” in a statement shared on X yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Earlier yesterday, Qatar said four out of five ballistic missiles launched from Iran had been successfully intercepted, but one missile hit the Ras Laffan gas facility, starting a fire.

Al Nahyan expressed solidarity with Qatar and support for any measures it takes to “safeguard its security, protect its citizens and residents, and preserve its stability.” He also warned that attacks on industrial infrastructure carry “serious environmental and humanitarian repercussions.” 

A U.S. F-35 jet made an emergency landing today after suspected enemy fire caused an inflight emergency in the Middle East, according to an official familiar with the incident.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement: “We are aware of reports that a U.S. F-35 aircraft conducted an emergency landing at a regional U.S airbase after flying a combat mission over Iran.”

“The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition. This incident is under investigation,” he added.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that it had “struck and seriously damaged” an F-35 jet operating over central Iranian airspace, citing “effective and targeted improvements in the country’s integrated air defence network.”

The United Nations has proposed a safety corridor in order to evacuate some 20,000 seafarers stranded aboard ships in the Persian Gulf.

“Any attack on innocent seafarers or civilian shipping is totally unacceptable,” International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told the IMO Council yesterday. “They must not become victims of broader geopolitical tensions,” he added.

Dominguez urged the warring parties to allow stranded ships to leave the Gulf safely in the interest of crew members who are facing “high risk and considerable mental strain.”

“Despite these challenges, they continue to perform their duties with professionalism and resilience,” he said.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, pressed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard about the objectives of the U.S. and Israel in Iran after Israel struck the world’s largest gas field, South Pars, in Iran.

“What does the intelligence community assess Israel’s goals in this war to be, and are those goals aligned with the goals of the United States?” he asked.

Gabbard answered that the objectives laid out by the president differ from those outlined by the Israeli government.

Tulsi Gabbard during a House hearing today. Daniel Heuer / Bloomberg via Getty Images

“We can see through the operations that the Israeli government has been focused on disabling the Iranian leadership and taking out several members, obviously beginning with the ayatollah and the supreme leader, and they continue to focus on that effort,” she said.

“How does that differ from our goals?” Castro asked.

Gabbard replied: “The president has stated that his objectives are to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile launching capability, their ballistic missile production capability, and their navy, the IRGC navy and mine-laying capability.”

The Israeli military defended its strike that injured a British journalist working for Russian state media in southern Lebanon, saying it had issued a warning to evacuate the area.

Steve Sweeney, a correspondent with the Kremlin-controlled RT news network, and his cameraman, Ali Rida, were hit while filming at the Al-Qasmiya Bridge. Sweeney sustained minor injuries.

RT’s report on the incident cited Rida saying that “Israeli forces ‘deliberately attacked’ the crew despite their wearing uniforms displaying their press credentials.”

The Russian Embassy in Lebanon called for “categorical condemnation and an appropriate investigation” in a statement and said “it is hard to believe that the incident was an accident.”

The destroyed Al-Qasmiya Bridge over the Litani River in Lebanon following an Israeli airstrike Wednesday. Kawnat Haju / AFP - Getty Images

Iranian missile fire killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank after shrapnel hit a beauty salon, with a pregnant woman among the dead, the Palestinian health ministry in the area said in an update today.

Asil Samir Masalmeh, 32, who was six months pregnant, was initially critically injured in the attack and taken to Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron, but she later succumbed to her injuries. A child was also critically injured, but her condition was stabilized, the health ministry said.

Family members mourn today for one of the Palestinian women killed in Iranian missile attacks in Beit Awa in the West Bank. Hazem Bader / AFP - Getty Images

Meanwhile, in Israel, a Thai worker was killed by cluster munitions, Thailand's labor minister, Treenuch Thienthong, said today, according to The Associated Press. The worker was identified as Chaiwat Waewnil, 30.

Thailand's labor minister said Chaiwat had registered his employment last year with a potato farm in Adanim in central Israel. His body was expected to be returned to his family in Thailand.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are grilling Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other top intelligence officials on the U.S. and Israel's objectives in the war against Iran.

Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., referred to Gabbard’s statements in 2020 when she was a congresswoman criticizing Trump’s drone strike on Qassem Soleimani, saying at the time that it pushed the U.S. toward an illegal war with Iran.

“Do you still believe that strikes against Iran that don’t have congressional authorization constitute an illegal and unconstitutional act of war?” Bera asked.

“The cost of war weighs very heavily upon me and my colleagues here, especially for those of us who have experienced and seen the cost of war firsthand,” Gabbard said. “My own personal and political views, as I mentioned earlier, I was asked and required by Congress and by the president in this role as the director of national intelligence to check those views at the door, to ensure that the intelligence assessments are not colored by my personal views.”

After Bera pressed her again, Gabbard said, “Once again, in this role, it is essential that I do not allow any of my personal views on any issues to color or bias the intelligence reporting that we deliver to you and to the president.”

Follow live political coverage here.

It could take months for Qatar to restart the export of liquified natural gas, an analyst has said, after Iran's strikes on its LNG export facility, which is the world's largest, sent shockwaves through the energy markets.

"The scenario of LNG coming out of Qatar before, say, June or July, that's pretty well ruled out," David Butter, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, said in an interview.

"It's natural gas going into fertilizers, so on," he said. "Most of the LNG sold out of the Gulf is on contract basis," Butter said, which in the short term would result in a "very difficult adjustment" of prices.

The price of Brent crude oil today shot up to over $116 a barrel.

Butter, who said he had been conducting gas forecasting in the previous days, said he has assumed a "tit-for-tat attack on vital gas infrastructure would be so dangerous for both sides that it probably won't happen."

"That was the assumption," he said.

U.S. stocks traded sharply lower as the opening bell rang in New York at 9:30 a.m. ET. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 1%, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 1.3% and the Dow dropped 350 points.

Stocks in Europe are also tumbling, as Europe's and England's central banks warn that the war with Iran is set to raise inflation and likely slow growth. The Stoxx 600 index was trading lower by 2.7%. The benchmark DAX index in Germany plunged 3%, and flagship indexes in the U.K., Italy and France also fell around 2.5%.

International Brent oil, meanwhile, rose 6% to about $115 per barrel. U.S. crude oil rose 2% to around $98 per barrel.

American allies including the United Kingdom, France and Germany say they are ready to “support appropriate efforts” to restart shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The joint statement, also signed by the leaders of Italy, the Netherlands and Japan, said they would also take “steps to stabilise energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output.”

Until now, European leaders have largely rejected Trump’s repeated demands that they take responsibility for reopening the strait, which Iran closed after being bombed by the U.S. and Israel.

“We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait,” the joint statement said. “We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.”

It also condemned Iran’s attacks on shipping.

The Pentagon briefing has concluded, but not before the defense secretary made a point that America’s “ungrateful allies in Europe” should be thanking Trump for attacking Iran.

His comments come as those allies express new dismay over the energy escalation, which has already driven up prices in Europe, and have shown little desire to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran “refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions is not just a regional problem, it’s a direct threat to America, to freedom and to civilization and the world,” Hegseth said. “The Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump: thank you.”

“‘Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb,’” he said. “‘Thank you for doing the work of the free world.’”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth takes questions at the Pentagon today. Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. may remove sanctions from Iranian oil that is stranded on tankers in the coming days to try to reduce oil prices.

"In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign," Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business. "So we have lots of levers. We’ve got plenty more that we can do."

Oil and gas prices have soared since the war began nearly three weeks ago.

Iran still maintains some military capability, Gen. Caine said during today's briefing.

Asked about Iran still having capability to launch strikes across the Gulf weeks into the war, Caine acknowledged Iran retained "some capability."

“They came into this fight with a lot of weapons,” he said, adding: “That’s why we continue to be as aggressive and assertive.”

Gen. Caine is now talking about how the U.S. military is continuing “to attack deeper” into Iranian territory. “We’re flying further to the east now and penetrating deeper into Iranian airspace to hunt and kill one-way” attack drones, he said.

In the Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil choke point blockaded by Iran, the A-10C Thunderbolt II — an attack aircraft known as the “Warthog” — is “hunting and killing fast attack watercraft” from Iran, he said.

He added that 120 Iranian vessels and 44 minelayers had been destroyed. In addition, Apache helicopters “have joined the fight on the southern flank, and they continue to work on the southern side.”

On land, yesterday the military dropped 5,000-pound “penetrator weapons” into underground facilities that store “coastal defense cruise missiles and other support equipment,” he said.

Gen. Dan Caine speaks at the Pentagon today. Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

Few world leaders seem to get along with President Donald Trump as well as Sanae Takaichi. But the Japanese prime minister could be in for an earful when she visits the White House today, as Trump grows increasingly frustrated with the course of his war on Iran.

Takaichi, 65, will be the first leader of a major U.S. ally to meet with Trump since he demanded that a coalition of countries, including Japan, help protect the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route that Iran has effectively closed, disrupting global trade and sending energy prices soaring.

Before leaving for Washington yesterday, Takaichi, who has said that Japan has no plans to send naval vessels to escort ships through the strait, told lawmakers that she expected the meeting with Trump to be “very difficult.”

“It’s hard to overestimate how much is at stake for her,” said Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies and history at Temple University’s Japan campus. “And she’s walking a tightrope because the Japanese public does not support the U.S. war in the Middle East at all.”

Read the full story here.

Today will mark the most intense day of U.S. attacks on Iran, Hegseth warned during today's Pentagon briefing.

“Today will be the largest strike package yet,” he said, in comments that echoed his previous briefings.

Hegseth had issued the same warning last week, saying that day would see "the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes" deployed in the war against Iran.

Hegseth honored the Americans killed in the conflict at the start and end of his briefing, vowing “we will finish this” at the behest of their grieving families.

The defense secretary told how yesterday at Dover Air Force Base, he, Trump and Gen. Caine “stood in solemn silence as heroes came home.”

The “flag-draped caskets” of which the defense secretary spoke were of the six crew members killed when their KC-135 aircraft came down in Iraq.

“We honored them and we grieved with their families and we listened,” Hegseth told the news briefing. “What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, ‘Finish this, honor their sacrifice, do not waver, do not stop until the job is done.’”

He said, “We will finish this, we will honor their sacrifice. Their sacrifice steels our commitment.”

The U.S. is winning the war against Iran decisively, with its objectives in the conflict unchanged and on target, Hegseth has said.

"We fight to win and we are winning on our terms following our objectives," Hegseth told the Pentagon briefing just now.

The defense secretary said over 7,000 targets had been struck across Iran and on its military infrastructure since the war began.

A Pentagon briefing is underway, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, amid the significant escalation in the war.

Follow for live updates.

Qatar is livid with Iran but also the U.S. and Israel, a senior official close to its leaders told NBC News.

The Gulf kingdom is angry that a war partly framed as protecting the flows of oil and gas is now setting its vital infrastructure ablaze, the official said.

Trump's assertion that the United States “knew nothing” about the assault by Israel on Iran's gas field is not true, the senior official close to Qatar’s leaders said.

Iran targets energy sites after Israel hit world's largest gas field

02:27

Axios, citing unnamed American and Israeli officials, reported that Trump knew and that the U.S. had in fact “green-lit” and coordinated the attack with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The White House did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

Fadel Itani / AFP via Getty Images

Fadel Itani is no stranger to Israeli strikes in his hometown.

The 39-year-old photographer from Beirut captured a stunning sequence of images in the early hours of Wednesday, showing an IDF missile demolishing a tower block in one fell swoop.

Itani, a freelance photograher with more than 16 years experience, told NBC News that he learned about the incoming strike from an alert sent by the Israel Defense Forces.

It warned residents to evacuate the Bachura neighborhood in Lebanon’s capital where it said the Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah, was operating.

“For the last two weeks, bombs have been dropping on Beirut,” he said, speaking from his home.

Read the full story here.

"I hope everyone comes to their senses,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters today in Brussels after the attacks on gas facilities. He added, “This escalation is reckless.”

Macron also called for a truce as the region enters the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, saying, "The fighting should stop for a few days to try to give negotiations another chance.”

He also warned of a "long-lasting" impact from the war if energy production facilities were destroyed.

Iran this morning announced the hanging of three people it said killed two police officers while protesting in January, the first known executions stemming from the unrest.

“These individuals used knives and other sharp weapons to attack two police officers,” the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr said today. They were convicted for murder and for “carrying out actions in favor of the Zionist regime and the United States.”

Turkey’s foreign minister made his way through our hotel lobby in Riyadh to the boom of intercepted Iranian munitions, while Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister told me he had never experienced "such a blatant attempt at blackmail."

Iran last night fired missiles toward Saudi Arabia’s capital even as top diplomats from across the region were meeting here.

Saudi trust in Iran is 'shattered,' foreign minister says

01:12

"The attack today was timed to coincide with this meeting," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told me, "to intimidate those present. To send home the message that Iran will not stop."

He continued: "This conflict will end at some point. But I have to tell you, what little trust there was has been completely shattered."

And he indicated that the prospect of Gulf countries actively entering this war should not be dismissed. "I think it’s important for the Iranians to understand that the kingdom, but also its partners who have been attacked and beyond, have very significant capacities and capabilities that they could bring to bear should they choose to do so."

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady yesterday, as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran disrupts the global economy and sends oil prices soaring.

Two weeks after the initial attacks, unleaded and diesel gas prices have skyrocketed alongside the cost of oil.

“The implications of developments in the Middle East for the U.S. economy are uncertain,” the Fed said in its statement.

“Near-term measures of inflation expectations have risen in recent weeks, likely reflecting the substantial rise in oil prices caused by the supply disruptions in the Middle East,” Powell said at a news conference in Washington.

Read the full story here.

China said it would offer “energy stability” to Taiwan if it agreed to reunify, as the self-governing island faces energy supply pressures amid the U.S.–Israel war on Iran.

“The two sides of the Strait would achieve full connectivity wherever possible, which would be fully capable of making up for Taiwan’s shortages in electricity, natural gas, crude oil, and other energy resources,” Chen Binhua, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a regular news conference yesterday.

Taiwanese soldiers during a military exercise in Taichung in January.  An Rong Xu / Bloomberg via Getty Images

China was offering Taiwan “reliable guarantees” for the island’s energy supplies, Chen said.

Taiwan rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's 23 million people can decide its future. Though Taiwan imports almost all of its energy, officials say natural gas supplies are secure and there is no need for concern. Gas supplies remain ample through April, Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai said in a Facebook post on March 5.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has called Israel’s attack on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field “incomprehensible.”

“This move has been totally damaging the markets,” Babis said. “The price of gas is exploding and the price of oil as well.”

The Czech Republic is one of Israel’s biggest allies within the European Union.

Meanwhile Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said Europe will not be “blackmailed” into the U.S. and Israeli military campaign in the Middle East.

“Europe, and Austria as well, will not allow itself to be blackmailed,” he said in Brussels. “Intervention in the Strait of Hormuz is not an option for Austria anyway.”

Stocker called for the stabilization of the supply and prices of energy.

The Iran war is rapidly becoming a war on the world’s energy supply.

Iran attacked energy facilities overnight across its Gulf Arab neighbors, hitting a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea and setting Qatari liquefied natural gas facilities and two Kuwaiti oil refineries ablaze.

Fires rage at Iranian gas field after Israeli attack

00:35

It’s retaliation, Iran says, after Israel yesterday attacked the South Pars natural gas refinery on the Iranian coast.

That was a major escalation, since the entire Pars field holds the largest natural gas reserves in the world. Both Iran and Qatar, across the Gulf, draw gas from it.

Brent crude oil soared past $116 a barrel this morning, rising almost 10% in just a day, as anxiety grows over energy supplies in the wake of attacks on key sites in Iran, Qatar and across the Gulf.

The European TTF benchmark for natural gas prices traded 24% higher and world shares retreated.

The surge in prices came after Qatar said yesterday that Iran had struck and caused “extensive damage" to the world's biggest liquefied natural gas export facility, located in Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City.

That was retaliation for Israel's attack on South Pars in Iran, the world's biggest gas field.

That's on top of the Strait of Hormuz's effective closure since the start of the war, which has cut off a fifth of the world's oil shipments.

Israel’s attack yesterday on a major natural gas field in Iran is a “clear expansion” of the war, a New York-based think tank said.

The attack on South Pars, the Iranian side of a natural gas field it shares with Qatar that is the world’s largest, “crosses a line that Tehran has long made clear,” the Soufan Center said. Iran relies on the gas field for about 80% of its domestic needs.

Footage verified by NBC News shows a large fire following a reported strike at the South South Pars oil field in Asaluyeh, Iran yesterday. Obtained by NBC News

“Unlike oil storage depots that can be replenished and rebuilt on a shorter timeline, liquified natural gas production (LNG) facilities cannot be as easily (or as inexpensively) repaired, especially against a backdrop of war,” it said.

“Extended timelines for repairs are a major blow to Iran’s economy, but above all else, they will be felt by Iranian civilians.”

U.S. companies will be allowed to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company after the Treasury Department eased sanctions, with some limitations, as the Trump administration looks for ways to boost world oil supplies during the Iran war.

The Treasury issued a broad authorization yesterday allowing Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, to directly sell Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, a massive shift after Washington for years had largely blocked dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector.

Separately, the White House said Trump would waive, for 60 days, Jones Act requirements for goods shipped between U.S. ports to be moved on U.S.-flagged vessels. The 1920s law, designed to protect the American shipbuilding sector, is often blamed for making gas more expensive.

The moves highlight the increased pressure that the Republican administration is under to ease soaring oil prices as the United States, along with Israel, wages a war with Iran without a foreseeable end date. Global oil prices have spiked as Iran halts traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

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Trump said Israel would carry out no further attacks against a major gas field in Iran — unless Iran again attacks U.S. ally Qatar, in which case the U.S. “will massively blow up the entirety” of the field.

Earlier today, Israel launched an attack on South Pars, the Iranian side of a natural gas field it shares with Qatar that is the world’s largest, leading global oil prices to rise on fears that Iran would retaliate by attacking energy infrastructure in Gulf states. Hours later, Qatar reported “extensive damage” to a major natural gas site after it was hit by a ballistic missile in what it called a “major escalation.”

The South Pars gas field on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, in Asaluyeh, Iran. Vahid Salemi / AP file

Trump said in a social media post that the U.S. “knew nothing” about the Israeli attack and Qatar “was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it,” and that Iran had attacked Qatar “unjustifiably and unfairly.”

Trump did know about the strike in advance, Axios reported, citing Israeli and U.S. officials.

There will be no more attacks on South Pars unless Iran attacks a “very innocent” Qatar, he said on Truth Social, in which case the U.S. “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.”

A former senior intelligence official who resigned in protest over the Iran war is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly leaking classified information, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The source told NBC News that the investigation began before Joe Kent, a longtime Trump ally and retired Green Beret, announced his resignation Tuesday as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Semafor first reported the investigation.

Kent, who reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said yesterday that he disagreed with the decision to go to war against Iran and that the regime did not pose “an imminent threat” as the Trump administration has asserted.

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• FBI conducting leak investigation into former Trump official who resigned over Iran war
• Intel chief Gabbard declines to say if Iran posed an ‘imminent threat’ to U.S.
• Republican leaders reject demands for public hearings on Trump’s war with Iran
• Destination war zone: How Lebanon’s only international airport stays open amid Israeli strikes
• Israel killed another Iranian leader, but experts say that doesn’t mean it’s winning the war
• Why the Red Sea could be the next choke point for the global economy
• U.S. eases Venezuela oil sanctions as Trump seeks to boost oil supply
• ‘Nobody knows’: Oil price shock leaves Fed uncertain about the economy
• Voters in a key Pennsylvania swing district weigh in on Trump, gas prices and Iran war
• Benjamin Netanyahu tries to dispel viral rumors of his death