Iran also sprayed missiles and drones at other targets across the region, hitting oil refineries in Kuwait and Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s not just the damage caused to the globally significant gas assets that matters \u2014 it’s the threat and fear of more attacks, which mark the start of a dangerous new chapter in the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This is a major escalation,” said Jon B Alterman, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“By striking the energy infrastructure, I think the Israelis invited the Iranians to begin to attack the Arab states’ energy infrastructure. The costs of that to everybody start getting very, very high.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
A ‘game of chicken’ that Trump may have lost<\/p>\n
As global energy markets reeled, the debate over who knew what, and when, dominated the discourse.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to distance himself, lambasting Israel for “lashing out in anger” and denying any knowledge of the attack.<\/p>\n
“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL” he said, unless Iran decides to again attack a “very innocent” Qatar.<\/p>\n
Israeli officials disputed the claim that the US was in the dark over the attack, telling media that Washington was in fact informed before it took place.<\/p>\n
One analyst, Yoel Guzansky from the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv university, went as far as to claim the US was actively involved.<\/p>\n
“I know for a fact that it was co-ordinated with the Americans,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Maybe it was about trying to test the waters, see what the Iranian response is, pressure them.<\/p>\n
“This is a game of chicken and he [Donald Trump] lost.”<\/p>\n
![\"trump](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ded840406a331e5a1fad170d1c89bc97.jpeg\")
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Donald Trump talks with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a stop in Doha in May 2025. (Reuters: Brian Snyder)<\/p>\n
Both leaders \u2014 Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u2014 then later awkwardly addressed the conjecture as they spoke to the press.<\/p>\n
Asked about the Israeli strike on Thursday, local time, Trump said, “I told him, ‘Don’t do that!'” and he suggested that Netanyahu “won’t do that” again in future.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in his first press conference since the war broke out, Netanyahu avoided the question about whether Trump knew, but said Israel “acted alone”. He said he had promised the US president that Israel wouldn’t bomb the gas field again.<\/p>\n
Analysts say several different scenarios could have played out behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
Expert analysis on the Middle East:<\/p>\n
“You could imagine it was co-ordinated at a level below the president, and he didn’t know about it; you can imagine the president forgot that somebody had raised it; or you can imagine the president isn’t speaking completely truthfully,” Mr Alterman said.<\/p>\n
“I think all of those things are possible. None of them are good.”<\/p>\n
But through the swirl of PR messaging coming from both administrations, the US and Israel appear increasingly divided over how this war should be waged, and what their objectives are.<\/p>\n
It also appears that by sparking Iran’s escalating strikes on Qatar, Israel may have crossed somewhat of a red line for Trump.<\/p>\n
A complicated history of US-Qatari diplomacy<\/p>\n
While their relationship remains somewhat complicated, Trump has put Gulf diplomacy front and centre of his foreign policy agenda, and Qatar has been put at the forefront.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Trump hosted Qatar’s Emir at his Mar-a-Lago estate. And in his current term, Qatar helped the president secure one of his biggest foreign policy achievements \u2014 the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s home to America’s largest military base in the Middle East, Qatar has been closer to Iran than America would have liked throughout much of Trump’s rule.<\/p>\n
For years, the tiny but uber-rich Gulf emirate has walked a tightrope, maintaining diplomatic relations with Iran, while building closer security and economic ties with the US.<\/p>\n
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/897271d2af4650c5f4314946e64e60d9.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
In 2017, Donald Trump held a bilateral meeting with\u00a0Qatar’s\u00a0Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP: Evan Vucci, file)<\/p>\n
During a diplomatic crisis between 2017 and 2021, when Gulf and Arab nations imposed a blockade on Qatar after alleging it was supporting terrorism and getting too close to Iran, Trump had sided with the anti-Doha alliance.<\/p>\n
When the crisis was resolved, some analysts said the blockade ultimately “strengthened Iranian-Qatari relations for the foreseeable future”<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2020, Qatar refused to sign the US-brokered Abraham Accords, which normalised ties between Israel and several of Qatar\u2019s Gulf and Arab neighbours. Since then it has maintained its unique position, describing itself as an “honest broker” between adversaries<\/a>, acting as a key mediator in the Gaza conflict, while also hosting Hamas\u2019s political offices.<\/p>\n Throughout Trump’s two terms in office, Qatar has tried to draw closer ties with the US president, even after he lost the 2020 election.<\/p>\n Donald Trump shakes hands with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a meeting onboard Air Force One in 2026. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein)<\/p>\n Last year Trump announced that the US had secured economic deals worth $345 billion with Qatar.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/84e769c4c631987b4396aeaec7bbd448.jpeg\")
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