live Ceasefire strains as Israel intensifies attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon killing hundreds - Thursday 9 April
Iran suggested it would be "unreasonable" to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace d...
Iranian attacks have wiped out 17% of Qatar’s liquified natural gas export capacity (LNG), equivalent to $20 billion in lost annual revenue, the CEO of Qatar’s state-owned energy company, Saad al-Kaabi said on Thursday (19 March).
The losses threaten supplies to Europe and Asia, with QatarEnergy declaring a force majeure, freeing it of obligations on long-term contracts for up to five years for LNG supplies bound for Italy, Belgium, South Korea and China.
Kaabi said two of Qatar's 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the Iranian strikes. Repairs to the infrastructure will take 12.8 million tons of LNG out of the system for three to five years, he said.
"I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be - Qatar and the region - in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way," Kaabi said.
Production at Pearl GTL in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City stopped on Wednesday (18 March) after the industrial hub came under fire. Kaabi said that for production to restart, hostilities needed to end.
QatarEnergy previously declared a short-term force majeure on its entire output of LNG after an earlier attack on Ras Laffin. Shell is a partner in the damaged GTL facility, which will take up to a year to repair, while U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil is a partner in the damaged LNG facilities.
The scale of the damage from the attacks has set the region back 10 to 20 years, Kaabi added.
"If Israel attacked Iran, it's between Iran and Israel. It has nothing to do with us and the region. And so now, in addition to that, I'm saying that everybody in the world, whether it's Israel, whether it's the U.S., whether it's any other country, everybody should stay away from oil and gas facilities,” he said.
China and Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Tuesday aimed at coordinating defensive efforts to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, leaving no agreed international framework for securing the vital route.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had stopped firing on northern Israel and Israeli forces on Wednesday as part of a two-week ceasefire in the Middle East brokered between the United States and Iran. However, a Hezbollah lawmaker warned that the pause could collapse if Tel Aviv does not adhere to it.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Iran and the United States, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate two-week ceasefire covering all areas, but Israel says the deal excludes Lebanon. Tel Aviv says the U.S. is committed to achieving shared goals in upcoming negotiations.
Recent U.S. complaints about NATO allies and threats to quit the alliance are pushing European countries to seek alternative security arrangements, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Tuesday.
Construction has begun on a major new solar power project in Xizang, as China continues to expand its renewable energy capacity and push towards a greener future.
Israel launched its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since hostilities escalated last month, killing over 100 people, even as Hezbollah halted attacks under a disputed U.S.-Iran ceasefire.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Türkiye aims to rank among the world’s top ten exporters of defence technology within the next two years.
As global attention centres on the conflict between Iran and the U.S., violence in Lebanon is intensifying, with Israeli strikes hitting residential areas, causing mounting civilian casualties and deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis.
Uzbekistan and the U.S. are preparing to launch a joint investment platform by the end of the year, alongside the creation of a new bilateral business council aimed at strengthening economic cooperation.
More than 94,000 people have been displaced in Afghanistan since late February due to cross-border fighting, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said, while nearly 100,000 in Nuristan remain cut off from aid due to insecurity.
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