U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned that if Iran continued targeting Qatar’s energy facilities, America would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field.”

Tehran has attacked a key energy facility in Qatar after Israel bombed the South Pars Gas in Iran, signaling a sharp escalation in the conflict and sending energy prices soaring.

Qatar said Wednesday that Iranian missiles caused “extensive damage” at Ras Laffan Industrial City, home to the largest liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export facility in the world.

Trump also denied any prior knowledge of Israel attacking South Pars, pushing back against reports that the strike was coordinated with and approved by his administration.

In a social media post Wednesday night stateside, Trump said that “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.”

Trump also urged Israel to end attacks on the South Pars gas field, unless Iran “unwisely” decides to attack Qatar. In that case, the U.S. 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.”

The attack on South Pars — the world’s largest natural gas reserve, shared between Iran and Qatar — marked the first time Israel has targeted Iranian natural gas production infrastructure since the conflict began on Feb. 28.

Iran has fired ballistic missiles at Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, with ​QatarEnergy saying the attack had caused “extensive damage” warranting deployment of emergency response teams to contain fires at the site. No casualties were reported.

Separately, Reuters reported Thursday that the U.S. government was considering deploying thousands of U.S. forces to the Middle East, raising the prospect of further escalation.

As tensions spiral, world leaders are scrambling to contain the Middle East conflict amid fears of deepening the turmoil in global energy markets.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Wednesday warned of a “crisis of the gravest order” if global supply chains continued to be disrupted, calling for a path toward de-escalation and a cessation of hostilities once U.S. and Israeli military objectives are achieved, according to local media reports.

The United Arab Emirates called the targeting of energy facilities linked to the South Pars field in Iran a “serious escalation,” posing “a direct threat to global energy security” with severe environmental repercussions.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs also called Iran’s targeting of its Habshan gas facility and Bab field a “terrorist attack,” risking a “dangerous escalation.”

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari described the Israeli strike on South Pars as “a dangerous and irresponsible step” amid escalating regional tensions.

The Gulf nation has declared Iranian military and security attachés and their staff at the Iranian embassy in Doha “persona non grata,” ordering them to leave the country within 24 hours.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud also appeared to toughen the tone, reportedly saying that “what little trust there was before with Iran has completely been shattered.” Both political and non-political responses to Iran remain on the table, he added.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Wednesday threatened to escalate hostilities by targeting oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.

In a post on X, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, saying that they “could have uncontrollable consequences, the scope of which could engulf the entire world.”

The attacks on Middle East energy production facilities have further deepened supply disruption triggered by the conflict. Brent crude May futures rose 4% to $111.77 a barrel as of 10:25 p.m. ET , while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for April climbed over 1.3% to $97.56 per barrel.

Oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — a vital chokepoint for one-fifth of global oil supply and a significant share of LNG exports — has plunged since the war began, with the waterway effectively closed to most commercial shipping.

Chile is the latest Latin American country to have become embroiled in a U.S.-China power struggle.

The country, which counts Washington as its top foreign investor and Beijing as its largest trading partner, is facing pressure from the White House over a subsea cable project with links to China.

In a surprise move, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late last week that the Trump administration would impose visa restrictions on three Chilean officials tied to a digital cable project proposed by Chinese firms, alleging a security threat.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who will leave office on March 11, condemned the visa sanctions and rejected the notion that the country “promotes any action that threatens our security or that of the region.”

Chile’s outgoing left-wing government later said one of the sanctioned officials was the country’s Minister of Transport and Telecommunications Juan Carlos Muñoz, without commenting on the identities of the other two.

The U.S. ambassador to Chile, Brandon Judd, defended the visa restrictions on Monday, telling reporters that it is Washington’s “sovereign right to take actions when we feel that the region’s security is being threatened,” according to The Associated Press.

The spat comes just days before a Latin American leader’s summit in Miami, Florida — and two weeks before Chile’s incoming right-wing government takes over in Santiago.

It also represents a major test for José Antonio Kast‘s administration, following the right-wing candidate’s election victory late last year.

Analysts say U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking to counter China’s strategic influence in the region, is sending an unequivocal message to Latin American countries.

The U.S.-Chile tensions were, above all, “a calibrated warning” to the Kast administration that strategic infrastructure decisions will be treated as geopolitical alignment choices — rather than neutral tenders, according to Mariano Machado, Americas principal analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

To be sure, digital undersea cables are the backbone of the world’s internet and telecommunications infrastructure, enabling everything from international phone calls to financial transactions. By some estimates, as much as 95% of international traffic passes through these largely unseen data super-highways.

“The near-term external consequence is that Kast’s upcoming Washington engagements – chief among them, in the Shield of the Americas summit – will become early tests of how Chile balances partners under pressure,” Machado said.

“As US-China competition intensifies in the region, Chile’s ‘digital hub’ ambition becomes investable only if geopolitical concerns are addressed upfront, not retrofitted after a crisis,” he continued. “Winning deals will be those that lock in clear governance and credible security assurances early enough to preserve bankability.”

China’s embassy in Chile has reportedly accused Washington of “obvious contempt for the sovereignty, dignity, and national interests of Chile” following the Trump administration’s visa restrictions against Chilean officials.

China’s strategic and economic influence in Latin America is well established, although it is thought to be the target of Trump’s so-called “Donroe Doctrine” — a portmanteau of Donald Trump and the Monroe Doctrine, which refers to a 19th century foreign policy position that asserted Washington’s influence over the Western Hemisphere.

In just the last few weeks, for example, Panama’s top court ruled against Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, saying a concession held by a subsidiary of the firm to operate ports at either end of the Panama Canal was unconstitutional. The outcome was widely seen as a victory for Trump’s regional security ambitions.

The U.S. has also ratcheted up pressure on Cuba’s communist-run government, threatening to impose tariffs on any country that provides oil to Havana, and recently conducted an extraordinary military operation to depose Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.