Kuwait's largest oil refinery, Mina al-Ahmadi, was hit by a second drone strike, part of a broadening Iranian campaign against Gulf Arab states. The attacks occurred early Friday morning, causing fires across multiple units at the refinery, though no casualties were reported. Kuwait's national oil company stated that several units had been shut down, while the country's military said its air defences were actively intercepting incoming missile and drone threats.
These Iranian strikes are in retaliation for an Israeli strike earlier this week on Iran's South Pars gasfield, the country's largest, which supplies about 80% of its domestic natural gas needs. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also claimed to have hit United States forces at the UAE's al-Dhafra airbase, as well as sites inside Israel. The UAE and Bahrain reported incoming missile and drone threats, with Saudi Arabia stating it had intercepted and destroyed more than a dozen drones within two hours.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned this week that the strikes on Gulf infrastructure represented "a fraction" of the country's capabilities and threatened "zero restraint" should Iran's own energy facilities come under attack again. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had acted alone in striking South Pars and would hold off further attacks on energy infrastructure at the request of US President Donald Trump, who had distanced himself from the strike.
Qatar's Ras Laffan terminal, the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, sustained severe damage in Iranian attacks, wiping out roughly 17% of global LNG supply and costing an estimated $20 billion in annual revenue. QatarEnergy chief Saad al-Kaabi said repairs could take between three and five years, adding that the scale of destruction had set the region back "10 to 20 years". Iran has also closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and LNG passes, sending energy prices surging and squeezing supplies of everything from computer chips to fertiliser.
Governments across Asia are already rationing electricity and cutting office hours. Mujtaba Rahman, managing director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, told Al Jazeera the conflict appeared to be entering "an escalatory phase", warning that Asia and Europe faced the heaviest exposure depending on "how long the war continues". Al Jazeera's correspondent in Dubai, Zein Basravi, noted that Gulf leaders were "trying to maintain some kind of poise as these attacks escalate", but it was becoming increasingly hard to see how the situation could continue "without some kind of breaking point".
Israel launched further attacks on Iran overnight. The sound of explosions was heard in Tehran as Iranians marked Nowruz, the Persian New Year, with no further details immediately available. Meanwhile, sirens sounded on Friday morning in central Israel, including in the capital Tel Aviv, due to a second Iranian missile barrage within an hour, the Israeli army said. In a statement, the army added that air defence systems were trying to intercept the missiles.
Source: www.aljazeera.com