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Desalination Plants Could Be The Iran War’s Most Consequential Targets

Iran threatened to destroy desalination facilities throughout the Gulf if the US follows through on President Donald Trump’s threats to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t fully reopened. Trump had said on Saturday, March 21, that he was giving Iran 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. But then early Monday morning, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that he had instructed the Department of Defense to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period. Amnesty International said that there is substantial risk that attacks on facilities providing essential services such as electricity, heating and running water “would violate international humanitarian law and in some cases could amount to war crimes,” and that “all parties have a clear obligation to take all feasible precautions to reduce civilian harm.”

Released on 03/23/2026

Transcript

[Reporter] Iran has threatened to launch strikes

against desalination facilities in the Gulf

if its power plants are targeted by the US.

Desalination plants are some of the most important elements

of civilian infrastructure in the Middle East,

turning seawater into drinking water

by removing salt and other minerals.

This is mostly done

through a process called reverse osmosis,

which removes most contaminants

by pushing water through

a semi-permeable membrane under pressure.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,

Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman

are home to some of the world's largest desalination plants

and depend almost exclusively on them for fresh water.

According to the Center for Strategic

and International Studies think tank,

the six Gulf States

have 3,401 operational desalination plants.

Deliberate targeting of desalination infrastructure,

the DC-based CSIS says,

Would represent a significant escalation of the war,

threatening vital water supplies

for millions of people across the region.

The world's largest desalination plant, Ras Al-Khair,

is located on the Gulf Coast of Saudi Arabia,

75 kilometers northwest of the city of Jubail.

A US diplomatic cable, leaked in 2008,

had warned that an attack on Ras Al-Khair

would force the entire population of Riyadh

to evacuate within a week,

as the plant delivers most of the city's drinking water.

Bahrain's interior ministry reported on March 8th

that an Iranian drone attack

had damaged a water desalination plant,

accusing Tehran

of indiscriminately targeting civilian infrastructure.

A day prior, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi,

accused the US of a blatant and desperate crime

of attacking a desalination plant

on the Iranian island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz,

claiming The US set this precedent, not Iran.