The war between Israel and Iran has entered what analysts are calling its most perilous chapter yet: the deliberate targeting of energy infrastructure. Both sides are now striking oil and gas facilities — a line that, until recently, neither was willing to cross.
As the Greek newspaper Ta Nea reported, the calculus was once simple: hitting energy production risked unpredictable consequences for the global economy. That restraint appears to have evaporated. “We are no longer talking about ships unable to transport fossil fuels due to hostilities,” the paper noted, “but about significant damage to production itself, with long-term repercussions.” If millions of barrels of oil are lost, the article warned, it may be impossible to replenish them even after the war ends.
The ripple effects are already reaching European capitals. Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, who also chairs the Eurogroup, said after a Euro Summit that “the impact of the Middle East war on citizens and the economy is our top priority.” Europe is now scrambling to respond on three fronts: energy costs, investment, and the digitization of its economy to reduce vulnerabilities.
Greece has already evacuated more than 2,000 citizens from the war zone spanning seven countries, according to Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis — an operation he described as perhaps the most difficult since World War II. Evacuees were moved by land from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem to Egypt, and by air from Oman, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
The danger has also reached the Arabian Peninsula. India’s embassy in Riyadh confirmed that an Indian national was killed due to “recent events of March 18,” though the circumstances remain unclear.