Netanyahu says Israel 'acted alone' in attack on Iranian gas field

32 minutes agoAlicia CurryReutersThe Israeli prime minister claims "Iran is being decimated" in the warIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel "acted alone" in attacking an Iranian gas field, as tensions mount over strikes on energy infrastructure across the region.Israel hit Iran's South Pars - part of the world's largest natural gas field - and Tehran retaliated by striking an energy complex in Qatar and attacking other energy targets in the Gulf.The attacks led to a spike in energy prices and US President Donald Trump later posted he had not known about them in advance.The fallout has raised questions over how united Israel and the US remain in their war aims.Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, the Israeli leader said Trump had requested that there be no further such attacks on energy targets.Earlier on Thursday Reuters news agency quoted three unnamed Israeli officials as saying that that attack on South Pars had been coordinated with the US in advance but that they were not surprised by Trump's reaction.Netanyahu also denied that his country had dragged the US into the war or "misled" Trump, saying that no one could tell the US leader what to do.The attacks on energy infrastructure marked an escalation in the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran, which had already responded by restricting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. About a fifth of the 100m barrels of oil that the world consumes every day usually travels via the Strait of Hormuz, which runs along part of Iran's coast. Following the Iranian attack on Qatar's Ras Laffan industrial area, which includes the world's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing plant, QatarEnergy said about 17% of its export capacity would be affected.Qatar's prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdurrahman Al-Thani, warned the attack would have "significant repercussions for global energy supplies" and called it a "very dangerous escalation". Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran would show "zero restraint" if its infrastructure was struck again.Ros Atkins on... Trump's mixed messages on the warGas prices, which had already been rising since the start of the conflict, surged in response to the Iranian attack on Qatar. The UK benchmark peaked briefly at almost 183p per therm on Thursday before easing back to 154.8p, an 11.3% increase from Wednesday's level. European prices also rose by more than 10%.At his news conference, Netanyahu insisted that Israel was inflicting massive damage on Iran's military capacity and had attacked Iran's navy in the Caspian Sea.He said Israel was working to weaken the Iranian regime but said it was up to Iranians to act if they wanted to overthrow their government."We can create the conditions, but they have to exploit those conditions at a certain point," he said."If [the regime] survives it will be a lot weaker, shorn of industries it built over decades."Also on Thursday verified footage showed fire and smoke at an oil refinery in Haifa in northern Israel after a reported Iranian missile attack. Israel's energy minister Eli Cohen said damage to the country's electricity grid in the north was "localised and not significant".