By Rami Ayyub and Humeyra Pamuk
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) – Israel’s attack on an Iranian gas field on Wednesday was coordinated with the United States but is not likely to be repeated, three Israeli officials said, despite President Donald Trump saying he did not know about it in advance.
The attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field drew an Iranian aerial assault on energy infrastructure in Qatar and across the Middle East, marking the biggest escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
On Wednesday night, Trump said in a social media post that Washington “knew nothing about this particular attack” and that Israel would not attack the gas field further unless Iran again attacked Qatar.
The three Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said on Thursday that Israel was not surprised by Trump’s comments.
They described the dynamic as similar to one that played out after Israel struck fuel depots in Iran several weeks ago. After those attacks, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth said that in “that particular case those weren’t our strikes”.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the three Israeli officials’ remarks, nor did the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
GULF COUNTRIES SEEK EXPLANATIONS FROM WHITE HOUSE
Since the Israeli attack on South Pars, Iranian attacks have caused extensive damage to the world’s largest gas plant in Qatar, targeted a refinery in Saudi Arabia and forced the United Arab Emirates to shut gas facilities.
After Iran’s attacks, Gulf Arab countries sought explanations from the Trump administration, with one country contacting U.S. Central Command, a regional source familiar with the matter said.
The Pentagon’s Middle East command told that country that it was not informed in advance of the Israeli strike, the source said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to name the country involved.
That country then contacted Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said that while the strike was not a joint U.S.-Israeli operation, Washington was informed about it ahead of time, the source said.
Israel has not publicly acknowledged responsibility for the strike.
The U.S. and Israel have repeatedly sought to highlight their close coordination in their joint air assault on Iran, but officials on both sides have acknowledged that their objectives were not the same.
On Thursday, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a House intelligence committee hearing that while Israel has been focused on “disabling the Iranian leadership,” the U.S. has focused on destroying Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its navy.
(Reporting by Jerusalem bureau and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Alison Williams and Timothy Heritage)
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