The US 'knew nothing' about the attack
US President Donald Trump issued a characteristically forceful statement following attacks on a major gas field shared by Iran and Qatar on Wednesday. Israel targeted Iran's South Pars, part of the world's largest natural gas field, and Iran retaliated by striking an energy complex in Qatar. These events caused energy prices to surge and provoked a strong response from Trump.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump threatened Iran once again and stated he was unaware of Israel's plans for the attack.
This raises questions about what the president’s language reveals regarding the war’s trajectory and the degree of alignment between the US and Israel on strategy and objectives.
President Trump declared that the US "knew nothing about this particular attack." This contradicts multiple Israeli newspaper reports following the incident.
The attack "was co-ordinated in advance with the United States and… agreed upon between Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and US President Trump," reported the centrist newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
Right-wing paper Israel Hayom stated, "President Trump discussed the upcoming Israeli strike in [Iran's coastal city of] Asaluyeh with leaders of three Persian Gulf states over the weekend."
As is often the case with the president's claims, determining the truth is challenging.
Trump’s wording describing the Israeli attack is also notable. He said that "out of anger," Israel "violently lashed out" against the gas field. This type of language is typically used to describe some of Iran's more extreme retaliations rather than a deliberate military operation by a close ally.
Is Trump implying that Israel acted imprudently?
Israel will make 'no more attacks' on gas field
While the president is known for his frequent use of capital letters, in this lengthy post he used all caps only once:
"NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field," he wrote, "unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case Qatar."
For a president who often seeks to assert control, this could reflect a commitment already made or serve as a warning to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
As is typical with Trump’s spontaneous Truth Social posts, the intent is ambiguous.
However, it echoes reports that Trump was angered by Israel’s earlier attacks on Iranian oil depots during the war.
Does this indicate divergence between Israeli and American war aims?
It would be unwise to overinterpret a single late-night post from President Trump.
Israeli officials emphasize that the two nations remain closely aligned, even if occasional, inadvertent hints suggest gaps.
"We are very much aligned on most or all of our goals regarding the Islamic regime in Iran, the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], their ballistic and nuclear programmes," Alex Gandler, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London, told the BBC on Thursday morning.
While the allies agree on many points, Israel has been more consistent in its desire for regime change in Iran.
Officials quoted in Israeli media this morning described the South Pars attack as part of an ongoing effort to undermine the regime's authority.
"The gas supply to citizens is being shut off, and that will bring the uprising closer," one official told Yedioth Ahronoth's Yossi Yehoshua.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has openly expressed his decades-long ambition to topple the Islamic regime, which he and many Israelis view as intent on destroying the Jewish state.
While the US has focused much of its military efforts on degrading Iran's missile and drone capabilities, sinking its navy, and recently attacking targets along Iran's Gulf shoreline, Israel has undertaken targeted assassinations of Iranian leaders and attacks on state control elements, including paramilitary Basij units responsible for violent crackdowns on protests earlier this year.
Iran 'did not know' facts about attack
In his post, President Trump insisted that Qatar was neither involved in nor had advance knowledge of the attacks.
But "unfortunately," he wrote, "Iran did not know this" before retaliating "unjustifiably and unfairly."
While Trump does not absolve Iran, he suggests Tehran may have mistakenly believed Qatar was involved when it struck back.
Threat to 'massively blow up' Iran's gas field
Parts of Trump’s Truth Social post feature his characteristic rhetoric, threatening unprecedented violence to achieve his aims.
If Iran attacks Qatar's LNG [liquefied natural gas] facilities again, he warns, the US "with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before."
Trump and his combative Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth often use such bombastic language. Despite branding himself the "president of peace," Trump frequently employs this kind of rhetoric.
It is true that Washington could inflict far greater damage on Iran and its people than it has so far.
The mention of Israeli consent for potential action is striking.
Was this a rebuke to Netanyahu and a clear reminder of the need for closer consultation in the future?
Some critics of Trump’s administration, especially within the MAGA movement, already suspect Israel is dictating US policy in this war. This statement risks reinforcing such perceptions as an unintended Freudian slip.
With oil and gas prices rising again due to the recent tit-for-tat attacks between Israel and Iran, and no clear progress in securing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump appears impatient.
The war continues to present unexpected challenges that the administration did not seem to anticipate.
Support for the war remains very high in Israel but is below 50% in the US. The conflict could help Netanyahu secure another term as prime minister while potentially harming Trump’s Republican Party in the upcoming midterm elections.
Israel and the US are close military allies, but this is their first time fighting a war together.
In less than three weeks, they have achieved significant results.
However, with each day, the war proves more complex than Trump initially expected.
