Trump Says He Warned Netanyahu Against Striking More Iranian Oil and Gas Fields: ‘We’re Not Doing That Anymore’

President Donald Trump told reporters at an Oval Office meeting with Japan’s prime minister on Thursday that he admonished Benjamin Netanyahu for striking Iran’s South Pars gas field, and reiterated that he knew nothing about it ahead of time.

When a reporter asked if Trump spoke directly to Netanyahu about the situation, he answered, “Yeah, I did, I did.”

“I told him, don’t do that, and he won’t do that,” Trump continued. “We didn’t discuss, you know, we do independent, but get along great. It’s coordinated, but on occasion he’ll do something, and if I don’t like it — And so we’re not doing that anymore.”

Trump posted to social media Wednesday night that neither the U.S. nor Qatar were involved in the attack on South Pars after Iran hit back at Qatar’s natural gas facilities.

“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit,” Trump wrote, continuing:

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. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility.

NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar – In which instance the United States of America, 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.

Despite Trump’s claims, three anonymous Israeli officials said that the South Pars attack was made in coordination with the United States, according to Reuters.

In addition, a source told Reuters that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said that although the strike “was not ​a joint U.S.-Israeli operation, Washington was informed about it ahead of time.”

Reuters called the exchange of fire “the biggest escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.”

Neither the White House nor Netanyahu responded to Reuters request for comment.

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