Dubai: Israel kept up its campaign of targeting Iran’s leaders on Wednesday, killing the country’s intelligence minister, and an Iranian offshore natural gas field was struck in a sign of the war’s mounting pressure – from both sides – on the region’s economic lifeblood: energy.
Iran has been taking aim at its Gulf Arab neighbours’ energy facilities since the war started on February 28, and has made the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel – through which one-fifth of the world’s oil travels – nearly impassable. On Wednesday, Iran struck a province of Saudi Arabia where many oil fields are located, and it threatened to ratchet up strikes against oil and gas infrastructure in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, too.
With oil surging above USD 108 a barrel on international markets – up more than 40 per cent since the start of the war – the price of gasoline and other goods are also rising, putting pressure on consumers and economies around the world.
As the Trump administration looks for ways to boost oil supplies and lower prices, the Treasury Department on Wednesday eased sanctions on Venezuela, saying US companies will be allowed to do business with the country’s state-owned oil and gas company.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib had been killed in an overnight strike and promised “significant surprises” to come. Iran retaliated by unleashing attacks against its Persian Gulf neighbours and Israel, where two people were killed near Tel Aviv. Three private aircraft at Ben Gurion International Airport were damaged in recent days by shrapnel after missiles fired from Iran were intercepted, according to Israel’s airports authority.
Iranian state television confirmed the killing of Khatib, who the US sanctioned in 2022 for alleged cyber-related activities against the US and its allies.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian calling Khatib’s killing “an unfair assassination.” On Tuesday, Israel killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani.
It wasn’t immediately clear who led the attack on Iran’s massive South Pars natural gas field, although Qatar, which shares the field with Iran, blamed Israel.
Iran has been targeting the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, as well as military bases, as part of a strategy to drive up oil prices and put pressure on Washington to back down.
Iran attacked Saudi Arabia’s vast Eastern Province, home to many of its oil fields, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
Iran has vowed to continue to crimp shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Since the war started, a few ships have gotten through – some Iranian, but also vessels from India, Turkey and elsewhere. Iran insists the waterway is open, just not to the US or many of its allies.
US President Donald Trump, who has been growing increasingly frustrated that no allies have stepped forward after he asked others to send ships to help open the strait again, posted on social media Tuesday that “WE DON’T NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
Iraq, which paused operations at its main oil terminal on the Persian Gulf last week, said Wednesday it had reached a deal with the autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish administration to begin exporting 250,000 barrels of crude oil daily via a pipeline to the Mediterranean Ceyhan port in Turkey.
Saudi Arabia is also already bypassing the Strait of Hormuz by sending some of its oil by pipeline across the country to be shipped from a Red Sea port.
Saudi Arabia shot down two drones targeting Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter, which houses the US Embassy and other foreign missions.
The US Embassy in Baghdad also came under fire for the second day in a row Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment. Militia groups have been regularly attacking American targets in Iraq since the war started.
Responding to the killing of Larijani, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday it had targeted central Israel with multiple-warhead missiles, which have an increased chance of evading missile defense systems and can overwhelm radar tracking systems.
Footage filmed by The Associated Press showed at least one missile releasing cluster munitions over Israel.
Larijani was a senior policy adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration. Larijani was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in January for his role “coordinating” Iran’s violent suppression of nationwide protests.
General Soleimani, also killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, was sanctioned by the US, the European Union and other nations, over his role in suppressing dissent for years.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency said an airstrike hit a courthouse complex in Larestan, a county in southern Fars province, and that at least eight people were killed. More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict started, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
Mizan also reported that Iran executed a man on charges of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. Wednesday’s report identified him as Kourosh Keyvani and alleged he “provided images and information on sensitive locations” to Israel.
Sweden’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it said was the execution of a Swedish citizen on Wednesday in Iran. The citizen, whose name was not made public, was arrested last year but additional details were not available.
Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant complex was hit by a projectile the night before, but there were no injuries and the plant suffered no damage, the International Atomic Energy Agency said after receiving a report from Tehran. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call “for maximum restraint during the conflict to prevent risk of a nuclear accident.”
In Lebanon, Israel kept up intense pressure, with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least a dozen people.
Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut about an hour after issuing an evacuation notice – the fourth time the building was targeted. Israel’s military claimed it was being used by Hezbollah to store “millions of dollars intended to finance its activities,” without providing evidence.
Overall, 10 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Another two people were killed in an airstrike in Lebanon’s western Bekaa Valley, it said.
Among those killed in Beirut was a journalist with Hezbollah’s AL-Manar TV, the broadcaster said. Al-Manar said the head of its political program Mohammed Sherri was killed along with his wife, and that his children and grandchildren were wounded.
Israeli strikes have displaced more than 1 million Lebanese – roughly 20 per cent of the population – according to the Lebanese government, which says 912 people have been killed and 2,221 wounded.
In Israel, 14 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 US military members have been killed.
