QATAR, Mar 19 – Qatar’s Interior Ministry says that all fires at the Ras Laffan energy facility have now been brought under control without any reported injuries.
In a fresh statement on X, the ministry said cooling and securing of the site was ongoing, with hazardous materials being handled by a specialised unit.
The Ras Laffan facility was hit by Iranian rockets early on Thursday morning, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the South Pars gas site.
US President Donald Trump has since addressed the attack in a lengthy post to Truth Social, where he declared the retaliation unjust and unfair, warning that any further attacks on “innocent” nations such as Qatar would result in the US blowing up “the entirety” of the South Pars gas field.
In his strongly-worded post, Trump says the US “knew nothing” of Israel’s strike attack. He threatened an escalation if Iran attacks Qatar again.
“Out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East”, Israel “violently lashed out”, Trump wrote.
He went on: “The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.”
But Iran didn’t know this, Trump writes, and that its retaliatory attacks on Qatar’s Ras Laffan were made “unjustifiably and unfairly”.
In his Truth Social message, Trump writes – in capitals – that ‘Israel will not attack Iran’s South Pars gas field again’, “unless Iran unwisely decides to attack” another innocent nation, which in this case was Qatar.
He added that he doesn’t want to authorise “this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications” for Iran, “but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so.”
The Ras Laffan industrial complex is the largest liquefied natural gas production facility in the world. Qatar produces 20 percent of global LNG supplies and Europe is very dependent on Qatar gas supplies.
