By Rami Ayyub and Humeyra Pamuk
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat the kind of attack Israel carried out on a major Iranian gas field, while saying the two countries coordinate their actions.
In a social media post on Wednesday night, Trump said Washington "knew nothing about this particular attack," even as three Israeli officials told Reuters the strike was coordinated with the United States.
The attack on Iran's South Pars gas field prompted an Iranian aerial assault on energy infrastructure in Qatar and across the Middle East, marking the biggest escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump did not say whether he had prior knowledge of the strike or approved it in advance, nor did he make clear when he had spoken to Netanyahu.
"I told him, don't do that and he won't do that," Trump said.
"We didn't discuss, you know, we do independent, but get along great. It's coordinated," Trump said. "But on occasion he'll do something. And if I don't like it. And so we're not doing that anymore."
The three Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said on Thursday that Israel was not surprised by Trump's comments on social media.
They described the dynamic as similar to one that played out after Israel struck fuel depots in Iran several weeks ago. After those attacks, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth said that in "that particular case those weren't our strikes."
The White House declined to comment further beyond Trump's post when asked about the information from the three Israeli officials' remarks. Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment.
GULF COUNTRIES SEEK EXPLANATIONS FROM WHITE HOUSE
Since the Israeli attack on South Pars, Iranian attacks have caused extensive damage to the world's largest gas plant in Qatar, targeted a refinery in Saudi Arabia and forced the United Arab Emirates to shut gas facilities.
After Iran's attacks, Gulf Arab countries sought explanations from the Trump administration, with one country contacting U.S. Central Command, a regional source familiar with the matter said.
The Pentagon's Middle East command told that country that it was not informed in advance of the Israeli strike, the source said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to name the country involved.
That country then contacted Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said that while the strike was not a joint U.S.-Israeli operation, Washington was informed about it ahead of time, the source said.
Israel has not publicly acknowledged responsibility for the strike.
The U.S. and Israel have repeatedly sought to highlight their close coordination in their joint air assault on Iran, but officials on both sides have acknowledged that their objectives were not the same.
On Thursday, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that while Israel has been focused on "disabling the Iranian leadership," the U.S. has focused on destroying Iran's ballistic missile programme and its navy.
(Reporting by Jerusalem bureau and Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Editing by Alison Williams, Colleen Jenkins, Timothy Heritage and Diane Craft)
