Iran threatens retaliatory attacks on oil facilities across Gulf after Israeli strikes
By The Guardian, March 9, 2026Iran has threatened to attack oil facilities in neighbouring countries after Israel struck at least five energy sites in and around Tehran, smothering the city in black smoke and escalating fears that the conflict will result in significant disruption to the world economy.
“If you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game,” said a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) on Sunday, March 8, 2026.
The US sought to calm markets as oil prices surged by pledging not to target Iran’s energy infrastructure.
However, fireballs and thick plumes of smoke rose over Tehran on Sunday after Israeli airstrikes hit four storage facilities. Iran’s oil distribution company said four employees were killed, as a dark haze hung over the city and the smell of burning oil lingered in the air. Explosions in the capital’s nearby city of Karaj reverberated across the region and left the area under smoke.
A spokesperson for the IRGC said Iran would retaliate if the strikes on energy infrastructure continue. State media quoted the spokesperson accusing the US and Israel of targeting civilians and fuel facilities, saying Gulf states should press them to stop or “similar actions will be taken in the region”.
However, the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, suggested the strikes that hit Iranian oil facilities were carried out by Israel and that Washington would not target Iran’s energy infrastructure. Speaking to CNN, Wright claimed disruptions to petroleum and gas supplies would be brief, “a few weeks” at worst. Iran produces about 4 per cent of global oil, much of it exported to China.
The tensions came as Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was chosen as his successor.
Members of the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday night, calling on Iranians to rally behind him and preserve national unity.
In a statement carried by state media, the assembly said Khamenei had been chosen through what it described as a “decisive vote”.
The body urged citizens across the country, “especially the elites and intellectuals of the seminaries and universities”, to pledge allegiance to the new leadership and safeguard unity at a critical moment for Iran.
The move could lead to a further escalation of the war after Donald Trump had already acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was the most likely successor and made clear he considered such an outcome unacceptable.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s elevation marks the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution that Iran’s supreme leadership has passed from father to son. It is a development likely to ignite debate within the country about the emergence of a dynastic system in a state founded explicitly to overthrow hereditary rule after the shah.