Iran has threatened to show “zero restraint” if its energy infrastructure is targeted again.
Israel struck Iran’s South Pars gas field, the world’s largest, on Wednesday, in an attack Donald Trump said he “knew nothing about”.
In retaliation, Tehran launched a series of strikes that damaged a gas plant in Qatar, hit a refinery in Saudi Arabia, forced the United Arab Emirates to shut gas facilities and caused fires at two Kuwaiti refineries.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said on Thursday: “Our response to Israel’s attack on our infrastructure employed [a] fraction of our power. The only reason for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation.
“Zero restraint if our infrastructures are struck again.”
The latest escalation, which has sent gas and oil prices soaring, has exposed diverging aims between Israel and the US in the nearly three-week-old conflict.
At an Oval Office press conference on Thursday, Mr Trump reiterated that he had told Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, not to target Iran’s energy fields.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, admitted in a House hearing that the objectives of the US and Israeli governments were different.