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Iran threatens to target power plants across Gulf, UAE's Barakah nuclear plant after Trump's Strait of Hormuz ultimatum
Donald Trump said in a social media post that if Tehran didn't open the Strait of Hormuz to all ships, the US would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.
Iran has issued a threat to strike power plants and water stations across the Middle East if US President Donald Trump goes ahead with his ultimatum of hitting Tehran’s power infrastructure at the end of his self-imposed deadline for opening the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump had said in a social media post that if Tehran didn't open the strategic waterway to all ships, the United States would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.
Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Monday that if the US did that, Iran would respond by hitting power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares.”
“Do not doubt that we will do this,” the Guard said in a statement read on Iranian state television.
Iran has also said it will completely close the Strait if Trump follows through with the threat to attack Iranian power plants.
The indirect threat
After the direct IRGC threat, news outlets from Iran published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates' nuclear power plant.
The report by the semiofficial Fars news agency, close to the IRGC, appeared to be an indirect threat to the sites, including desalination plants in the Gulf region.
The list also included the UAE's Barakah nuclear power plant, which has four reactors out in the western deserts of the country near its border with Saudi Arabia.
The judiciary's Mizan news agency also published the list.
Why does the threat also put water stations at risk?
The threat from Tehran puts at risk both electrical supplies and water in the Gulf Arab states, particularly as the desert nations interconnect their power stations with desalination plants, which are crucial for supplying drinking water.
Donald Trump's self-declared 48-hour deadline expires just before midnight GMT Tuesday, further raising the stakes of the ongoing war with Iran that has disrupted global energy supplies, sending natural gas and gasoline prices soaring.
