Trump Threatens ‘Completely Obliterating’ Iranian Infrastructure as Possible Escalation Looms
Cheyanne M. Daniels POLITICO
Donald Trump. (photo: Erin Schaff/NYT/Redux)
The president threatened strikes against Iran’s “Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island” on Monday, even as he suggests “great progress” has been made on negotiations.
In a post to Truth Social on Monday morning, Trump said there has been “great progress” in negotiations to end military operations in Iran but added that if the strait is not reopened, “we will conclude our lovely ’stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ’touched.’”
Deliberate attacks on desalinization plants, which convert salt water into potable water and are crucial to sustaining life in the region, would be a major escalation that could constitute a war crime under international law.
Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway in the region, effectively closed earlier in the month and has attacked ships that attempted to go through the strait. Trump has repeatedly called on Iranians to reopen the strait as oil prices have surged, sometimes to more than $100 per barrel, leading to skyrocketing gas prices.
Trump’s latest threats are not the first he has made about civilian infrastructure. Last week, he set a 48-hour deadline to reopen the strait — which nearly 20 percent of the world’s oil is normally transported through — or the U.S. would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” He later kicked back that deadline.
Iran has also threatened to target civilian infrastructure, and some in other Arab nations have already been hit. After Trump’s initial threats last week, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that if Iran’s power plants and infrastructure are targeted, Iran would retaliate by targeting vital infrastructure across the region — including energy and desalination facilities in Gulf nations.
The Arab League on Monday condemned “the reprehensible Iranian attacks on electricity and water desalination facilities in the State of Kuwait.”
Attacks on energy structures could constitute a war crime. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres previously told POLITICO that “If there are attacks either on Iran or from Iran on energy infrastructure, I think that there are reasonable grounds to think that they might constitute a war crime.”
Trump has weighed escalating military operations in the Middle East for some time.
In recent days, he has weighed seizing or destroying Kharg Island, a small piece of land that almost all of Iran’s oil exports pass through, which could involve American boots on the ground.
“This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ’Reign of Terror,’” Trump said Monday.
No American troops have as of yet invaded Iran, though thousands have been deployed in the region amid a continued buildup.
