The Spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Majed al-Ansari, calls this morning’s attack by Israel against energy infrastructure in Southern Iran a “dangerous & irresponsible step amid the current military escalation in the region.” Adding that, “Targeting energy infrastructure constitutes a threat to global energy security, as well as to the peoples of the region & its environment.”

Speaking this morning on Fox News, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the United States does not need the Strait of Hormuz, and efforts to reopen it would provide more of a benefit to Europe and the NATO, adding that, “Of course we want the Strait to be open for the global oil market and to stabilize prices and bring them down again. And we have options, the military has options to continue doing that, but the President is right to call on our allies to step up to do more.”

E5 Defense Ministers held a call today to discuss the situation around the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.

Air raid sirens now in Bahrain.

Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN), has said in a statement following this morning’s Israeli strikes against energy infrastructure in Southern Iran:

“With the target bank updated, oil facilities associated with America are now on par with American bases and will come under fire with full force.”

Tangsiri advised all citizens and workers to avoid these facilities across the Middle East, with this statement as well as earlier evacuation warnings by the IRGC suggesting imminent strikes by Iran against oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump has issued a 60-day waiver temporarily suspending the Jones Act, a longstanding shipping law that requires the transport of goods between American ports to be conducted by American-flagged vessels, with the waiver allowing vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and coal to flow freely into the United States for two months, in an attempt by the White House to stabilize oil markets amid the Iran War.

Shelter-in-place has been ordered due to a threat made against MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, which houses the Headquarters of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

Bloomberg reports that multiple oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have been evacuated so far today, following Israel’s strikes this morning against several energy sites in Southern Iran and threats made by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against U.S. linked oil and gas sites around the Gulf Region.