Iran vows to destroy Middle East water and energy facilities if US attacks power plants | US-Israel war on Iran
Tehran has said the US would “irreversibly destroy” key infrastructure in the Middle East, including vital water systems, if it follows through on Donald Trump’s threat to “destroy” Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully opened within two days.
The developments signaled a dangerous potential escalation of the war, now in its fourth week, as Iranian missiles struck two southern Israeli cities overnight, injuring dozens of people and Tehran deployed long-range missiles for the first time.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that vital infrastructure in the region, including energy and desalination plants, would be considered a legitimate target and that his country’s own infrastructure would be “irreversibly destroyed” if attacked.
Amnesty International said this month: Attacks on systems providing basic services such as electricity, heating and water risked violating international law and “in some cases constituting war crimes” due to the potential for “major, foreseeable and devastating civilian harm”.
Hatem al-Anbiya, the operational command center of the Iranian military, said Iran would hit “all energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure” belonging to the United States and Israel in the region.
The statement also stated that if Trump’s threat comes true, the Strait of Hormuz “will be completely closed and will not be opened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt.”
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said that “threats and terror only strengthen Iranian unity.” the ““The illusion of erasing Iran from the map” showed “desperation against the will of a history-making nation”.
The US president said on Saturday that he had given Iran 48 hours (until midnight GMT on Monday) to open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for the flow of world oil, or the US would “strike and destroy” Iranian power plants “starting with the largest ones first”.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz defended Trump’s threat on Sunday, insisting that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controls much of the country’s infrastructure and uses it to power the war effort.
He said Trump would start by destroying one of Iran’s largest power plants, but did not identify it. “There are gas-fired power plants and other types of power plants,” he said, and “the president is not messing around.”
Iran’s representative to the International Maritime Organization, Ali Mousavi, said on Sunday that the strait was open to all ships except those linked to “Iran’s enemies” and that passage was possible by coordinating security arrangements with Tehran.
Iran’s attacks have caused the world’s worst oil crisis since the 1970s by closing the bottleneck that carries nearly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies and sent gas prices in Europe rising by as much as 35% last week.
A relatively small number of ships, estimated at about 5% of the pre-war volume, were allowed through from countries Tehran considers friends, such as China, India and Pakistan.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Iran since February 28, when the US and Israel began their attacks, and Tehran has also hit targets in Israel and the Gulf countries. Lebanon withdrew after Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel.
After many people were injured in two separate attacks on the southern towns of Arad and Dimona, air raid sirens began to sound throughout Israel from the early hours of Sunday morning, warning of missiles coming from Iran.
The Israeli army announced Sunday morning that it would strike Tehran in retaliation. The country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that senior Revolutionary Guard commanders would be followed during his visit to Arad.
“We are going after the regime. We are going after the Revolutionary Guard, this criminal gang,” he said. “We are going after them, their leaders, their facilities, their economic assets.”
The Israeli army said it was unable to intercept missiles that hit Dimona and Arad, the major towns closest to the country’s nuclear center in the Negev desert, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal.
Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons and insists they are for research purposes. The attack marked the first time Iranian missiles penetrated Israel’s air defense systems in the region.
Approximately 200 people were injured in the attacks, including a 12-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, and both were reported to be in serious condition. Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 reported initial indications of possible deaths, but there was no official confirmation.
Iran said the strikes were launched in response to an attack on its main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz on Saturday. Israel denied responsibility for the attack and the Pentagon declined to comment.
Another 15 people were injured in a separate incident involving a cluster bomb in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning. As Iranian attacks increasingly test the limits of Israel’s air defense systems, the attacks also increase the pressure on Israel’s air defense systems.
The World Health Organization called for restraint, saying the war was at a “dangerous stage”. “Attacks targeting nuclear facilities pose an increasing threat to public health and environmental safety,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Israeli chief of staff Eyal Zamir said Tehran fired a long-range missile for the first time on Saturday. He said two ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) were fired at the US-British Indian Ocean military base in Diego Garcia.
British cabinet minister Steve Reed said that one of the missiles was insufficient and the other was stopped. He said there was no assessment to support claims that Iran was planning to attack Europe.
The Israel Defense Forces had said Iran had missiles capable of reaching London, Paris or Berlin, but Reed said he was not aware of any assessment that Iran was trying to target Europe “which they could do if they just tried.”
In a separate interview, he said Trump was “speaking for himself” when he threatened to destroy Iran’s power plants.
Analysts said Trump’s threat had placed a “ticking time bomb of 48 hours of increasing uncertainty” on energy and financial markets, with a “black Monday” looming if he did not withdraw, with stock markets falling and energy prices rising.
Iraqi officials stated that the attack, which took place over at least six nights, targeted the US diplomatic and logistics center at Baghdad airport, while Saudi Arabia said three missiles were detected over Riyadh. The UAE said Iran responded to missile and drone attacks.
In southern Lebanon, Israel said its army raided Hezbollah areas on Sunday and killed 10 of the group’s fighters. Hezbollah said it attacked many border areas in northern Israel. One person was killed on the Israeli kibbutz, emergency services said.
Three Turkish citizens, including a soldier, and three Qatari service personnel were killed when the helicopter crashed into Qatari territorial waters, the country’s defense ministry said on Sunday.
The interceptor missile that injured dozens of civilians in Bahrain on the 10th day of the war was likely fired by a US-operated Patriot air defense battery, according to an academic analysis seen by Reuters.
While Manama and Washington blamed Iran’s drone attack for the explosion on March 9, Bahrain announced that 32 people, including children, were injured.
