Israel is not directly participating in the negotiations with Iran that US President Donald Trump announced on Monday, Semafor reports, citing sources.

According to them, Middle Eastern states are angered by their inability to exert significant influence on decisions made by the American administration that lead to retaliatory strikes on their territories. Arab states believed they had managed to convince Washington to dissuade Israel from striking Iranian energy facilities, but instead the US approved the Jewish state's attack on the South Pars gas field in the Islamic Republic, the outlet notes.

On March 18, the head of the administration of the Assaluyeh district of Iran's Bushehr province reported that fires broke out at several facilities at the South Pars gas field as a result of Israeli and US strikes. In connection with this, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced its intention to attack oil and gas sector facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar in the near future. Following this, Qatar Energy reported that the Ras Laffan site came under missile fire and caught fire. Qatar's Defense Ministry indicated that the strike with a ballistic projectile was launched from Iranian territory. As Qatar Energy later added, after midnight on March 19, its production infrastructure came under missile attack again, triggering another large-scale blaze.