Iran has issued a direct warning to the United States and its allies following reported US strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure, declaring that the conflict has entered a “new stage” marked by retaliatory attacks on oil and gas facilities.
The warning came after an attack on Iran’s South Pars Gas Field which is one of the world’s largest natural gas processing sites, prompting a strong response from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In a statement, the IRGC warned that further escalation targeting energy infrastructure would trigger sustained and intensified retaliation:
“We warn you once again that you made a big mistake in attacking the energy infrastructure of the Islamic Republic, for which the response is underway. If it is repeated again, further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed, and our response will be much more severe than tonight’s attacks.”
Iranian officials indicated that while Tehran had previously sought to avoid expanding the war into the energy sector, the latest strikes had forced a shift in strategy.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran did not intend to expand the scope of the war to oil facilities and did not want to harm the economies of friendly and neighboring countries,” the IRGC said. “But with the enemy’s aggression against energy infrastructure, we have effectively entered a new stage of the war, and the necessity of defending Iran’s infrastructure forced us to attack energy facilities related to the United States and American shareholders.”
Further fueling Tehran’s retaliation is the recent killing of several top-ranking Iranian officials in a wave of targeted strikes attributed to Israel, reportedly carried out with US backing. Among those killed are senior figures including Ali Larijani, a key national security official, Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij paramilitary forces, and intelligence chief Esmail Khatib.
The South Pars field, which Iran shares with Qatar, is critical to Iran’s domestic energy supply. The vast reservoir contains an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet of usable natural gas which is enough to supply global demand for roughly 13 years, according to reports. Located in the Persian Gulf and in production since 2002, the field accounts for up to three-fourths of Iran’s total gas output and provides a significant share of feedstock for the country’s petrochemical and gasoline industries.
Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure is heavily concentrated in its southwestern provinces, particularly Khuzestan for oil production and Bushehr for gas and condensate processing linked to South Pars. Despite the field’s global significance, sanctions and technical constraints have meant that most of the gas produced is consumed domestically rather than exported.
