This is The Guardian.

There is a genuine degree of panic over this.

It creates the possibility of an energy crisis that drags on, you know, for months, if not, for several years.

We hold the cards. We have objectives. Those objectives are clear. energy crisis that drags on, you know, for months, if not, for several years.

We hold the cards. We have objectives. Those objectives are clear.

You know, when this started, I had my head in my hands, because none of this makes sense.

It doesn't make sense in terms of how you manage a conflict. Diplomatically, they don't seem to have a story. The White House claims it knew nothing about an Israeli attack on a gas field in Iran,

but can it be believed? And what does it mean for already soaring energy prices around the world?

From The Guardians today and focus, this is the latest with me, Lucy Hart.

Joining me is Peter Beaumont, the Guardian Senior International Reporter. Thanks so much for coming

up to the studio, Peter. So Israel has struck Iran's South Pars gas field, which is this enormous,

it's the biggest gas field in the world, isn't it? Yes, it's the biggest gas field. At the same time

that there is this effective blockade of the Strait of Hammuz, this very vital passage

in the Persian Gulf, which has hugely disrupted the oil market. Tell me about this strike

that Israel has carried out and why it is so significant as an act of aggression. Well, as you said,

the South Pass gas field is the biggest, part of the biggest gas field in the world. It's shared with

Qatar and, I mean, it's all one system. So, I mean, it's, it's not like, you know, here's the

Qatari part and here's the Iranian part. It's all joined up. So this produces some of, you know,

most of the world's liquefied natural gas. And it's the first time that we've seen

tip-for-tat strikes on kind of, you know, what upstream oil production extraction facilities,

i.e. where the stuff comes out of the ground. And that's kind of really important because up

till now it's been on kind of port facilities on tankers, things that

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