By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for the world to “return to reason” and de-escalate the raging conflict in the Middle East, as “Israel’s” recent attack on a major Iranian gas field caused global energy prices to soar, and stoked fears that the war could spiral out of control.
Speaking before the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday Macron warned that Tehran’s “reckless” overnight retaliatory strike on a Qatari gas facility risked inflicting further harm on “all countries” in the region as well as the world economy.
“We will obviously defend a de-escalation, a return to stability in the Middle East,” Macron said, adding that he spoke to Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Donald Trump about the war on Wednesday night.
“I think that everyone should calm down and the fighting should stop at least for a few days to try to give negotiations a chance again,” the French leader added. “I hope that, in any case, everyone will return to reason.”
Macron’s remarks come after “Israel” on Wednesday attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field, which forms part of the world’s biggest natural gas reserve and is the largest source of Tehran’s domestic energy supply.
Iran subsequently retaliated by striking Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas terminal, in an attack that Doha said caused “extensive damage” and marked a “dangerous escalation” of the conflict.
In a social media post early Thursday, Trump said that Washington “knew nothing” about “Israel’s” attack, which he said was sparked by “Israel’s” “anger for what has taken place in the Middle East”.
Trump also said no more attacks will be initiated by “Israel” if Iran refrains from further strikes on Qatar. However, he warned that the US would “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” if Tehran fails to comply.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, spiked to $118 per barrel on Thursday, the highest level since the conflict began on 28 February. It had fallen to just under $114 per barrel by 12pm CET.
No comments:
Post a Comment