New Delhi, March 21 -- Austrian aerial warfare analyst and historian Tom Cooper has warned that Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure could escalate the conflict in West Asia and potentially trigger retaliatory attacks on energy facilities in Qatar, with wider implications for countries like India that depend on Gulf energy supplies.

In an interview with ANI on Friday, Cooper criticised the strike on the Iranian side of the South Pars gas field.

"And then we see the Israelis striking, doing such nonsensical things like striking South Pars gas field--the Iranian side of the South Pars gas field--which is absolutely mindless, because of course this is provoking Iran into striking back upon similar facilities in Qatar," Cooper s...