Iran War: What’s happening on the 20th day of the US-Israel attack? | US-Israel war over Iran news
The Iran war has entered its 20th day as Israeli and Iranian attacks hit energy infrastructure across the region.
Published on 19 March 20
The Israel–Iran war is escalating on multiple fronts, with assassinations of senior Iranian officials and Israeli and Iranian attacks on key energy infrastructure.
On the 20th day of the conflict, Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field, the world’s largest. A few hours later, Iran fired missiles against oil and gas facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, striking Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial city and setting it on fire.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been accused of changing her Senate testimony on Iran, reportedly omitting intelligence details that contradict President Trump‘s assertionss an imminent threat.
Here’s the latest:
in Iran
- Murder of senior officials: Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has announced that Israel will pay for the killing of three senior Iranian security officials over the course of two days, including the recent killing of Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib and the previous killings of security chief Ali Larijani and Basij paramilitary chief Gholamreza Soleimani.
- Attacks on Iranian energy and sector: Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field, the world’s largest gas field. Subsequently, the Israeli military announced that it had begun attacking targets in northern Iran for the first time since the war began on 28 February.
- Warnings: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a warning that it would respond to South Pars by attacking the oil and gas facilities of neighbouring Gulf states – and hours later, it acted on that threat.
in the bay
- Retaliation against Gulf neighbours: Iranian missiles caused massive damage to Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, the world’s largest. Analysts have warned that the attack could lead to a shortage in global supply and increase gas prices. Iranian missiles also targeted Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but those attacks were intercepted.
- Qatar expels several Iranian diplomats: due to repeated attacks by Iran, the country declared the Iranian embassy’s military and security aides persona non grata and ordered them and their staff to leave the country within 24 hours.
- Riyadh declared that “Iran has completely shattered what little trust remains.” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud cautioned that if Iran persisted in its attacks, “non-political” options would be considered, emphasising that Riyadh and other Gulf capitals possessed the military capabilities to respond forcefully to Iran if it did not promptly cease its attacks against them. “The patience that is being displayed is not unlimited. Do the Iranians stay for one day, two days, or one week? I’m not going to telegraph that,” he said.
- ‘Terror cell’ failed in Kuwait: Kuwaiti security services said they have foiled a planned “terrorist” campaign against the country’s critical infrastructure. Authorities arrested 10 Kuwaiti nationals who were allegedly part of a cell affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
- Bahrain: The government announced that its air defences had intercepted and destroyed 132 missiles and 234 drones since the war began.
- America and Qatar: US President Donald Trump issued a statement on Truth Social insisting that neither the US nor Qatar had any involvement or prior knowledge of Israel’s initial strike on the South Pars area. He said that Israel would not attack South Pars again. However, he issued a stern ultimatum to Iran, warning that if Qatar’s energy facilities were attacked again, the US would “massively blow up the entire South Pars gas field”.
- Regional context: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister suggested that Iran’s decision to attack Qatar’s Ras Laffan compound, as well as targets in Riyadh, while a diplomatic meeting was taking place, was a deliberate attempt by Iran to “blackmail Arab and Islamic countries.” He also said Iranian attacks against Gulf neighbours appear to be “premeditated, premeditated, pre-organised and deliberate.”
in America
- US intelligence controversy: US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been accused of altering her Senate testimony regarding Iran. His written statement said US intelligence had concluded that Iran had attempted to rebuild its uranium enrichment capabilities after the bombing last June – a claim that undermines Trump’s insistence that Iran was close to making a nuclear bomb before the current war began on February 28. But in his oral testimony, he did not mention this intelligence finding.
- Trump waives shipping law: Trump temporarily waived a century-old shipping law to help reduce energy costs. The move to issue a 60-day Jones Act waiver would lift restrictions on foreign-flagged vessels transporting goods between U.S. ports during this period.
in israel
- Military operation against Iran: Israel has expanded its military campaign, attacking targets in northern Iran for the first time since the war began on February 28.
- Ongoing conflict with Hezbollah and actions in Lebanon: Fighting continues on the Israel-Lebanon border. A group of Israeli soldiers filmed themselves looting houses in southern Lebanon, comparing it to similar behaviour previously recorded in Gaza.
- Debris falls on Israel airport: The Israeli military told AFP news agency that debris from an intercepted projectile had fallen on Ben Gurion Airport following an Iranian missile attack, without specifying when the incident occurred.
- ‘Regime Fall’: Former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy suggests that Israel’s goal is “regime collapse and state collapse in order to destroy Iran”. Levy argues that Israel’s recent escalating moves are actions intended to “burn the ramp” and deliberately prevent the US from withdrawing from the conflict.
in Lebanon
- Ongoing clashes in South Lebanon: Fighting continues in the border area, with Hezbollah announcing that it has recently attacked groups of Israeli soldiers in the southern Lebanese town of Tayyeb. The group also reported targeting Israeli soldiers deployed across the border in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona.
- Mass Displacement: Israel’s military invasion of Lebanon has forcibly displaced more than one million Lebanese people in less than three weeks.
in Iraq
- Attack on Salah al-Din: Three Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) security personnel were injured, one of them seriously, after an attack on the headquarters of the 6th Brigade in the Beiji district of Salah al-Din Governorate in Iraq.
- Role of PMF: The PMF (also known as Hashd al-Shaabi) is an umbrella organisation of mostly Shia paramilitary groups that was originally formed to fight the ISIL (ISIS) group. Although it is formally integrated into Iraq’s state security forces, the PMF includes several factions that are closely aligned with Iran.
oil market
- South Korea secures UAE oil: South Korea said it would obtain an additional 18 million barrels of oil from the United Arab Emirates through alternative supply channels, bypassing the need to use the Strait of Hormuz.
- US Fed raises inflation outlook: The US Federal Reserve raised its outlook for inflation while keeping interest rates on hold, citing an “uncertain” economic outlook due to the war in Iran. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he expects higher energy prices to boost inflation in the near term, though he also said the further economic effects remain uncertain.
