Trump’s threats of targeting water plants in Iran, a potential war crime, alarm Gulf allies

By Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — After President Donald Trump floated on Monday the possibility of expanding the Iran war by potentially striking water treatment plants in Iran, some Gulf countries reiterated grave concerns to the Trump administration about any strikes on civilian infrastructure and the risk of an intensifying tit-for-tat escalation, according to four regional sources.

Civilian infrastructure sites like water plants are clearly banned as targets by international law, but throughout the war following US and Israeli strikes, Iran has retaliated against US allies in the Gulf region, many of whom rely heavily on desalination to provide water for citizens due to few fresh water sources. If Iran responded to a US strike on a water plant by hitting a similar facility in a nearby country, it could trigger devastating consequences.

“It will be a huge catastrophe if they strike, we rely on desalination for almost all drinking water,” said one regional official, explaining that the concerns about pursuing these strikes have been clearly articulated to Trump administration officials in the past and were reiterated after Trump’s Truth Social post on Monday.

While several countries have privately reached out to the Trump administration to warn against such attacks, they’ve so far avoided publicly rebuking the US president.

Targeting critical civilian infrastructure, which includes water plants and potentially power plants that have also been the subject of Trump threats, could be considered a war crime. The Geneva Conventions and its protocols define objects indispensable to the survival of a civilian population as illegal military targets, and clearly cites “drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation work” as falling into that category.

“Desalination plants are purely civilian infrastructure. There is no legal argument whatsoever for attacking them,” said Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, adding that those advising Trump have “a responsibility not to implement any illegal order.”

Iran gets only a small fraction of its water from desalination plants. But nearby countries including Qatar and Bahrain produce more than half of their drinking water using the technology, which converts seawater into potable water by removing the salt.

The private chorus of voices encouraging the US to steer clear of committing potential war crimes that could escalate the conflict does not include every player in the region.

Some nations don’t have the bandwidth to fight against potential strikes from Iran because they are entirely consumed by defending against the current Iranian attacks, said a senior Gulf diplomat.

There are also intense ongoing efforts to broker US-Iran negotiations, and a separate regional source said that scolding the administration privately could undermine the facilitators’ efforts.

Experts warned that US allies’ hesitancy to condemn any illegal threats by the Trump was a dangerous approach.

“Being quiet in the face of lawlessness, hoping that somehow you’ll mitigate it through other efforts is just naive,” Roth said. “Trump will take anything he can get if there’s not an outpouring of opposition to it.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine responded to questions about the potential targeting of desalination plants on Tuesday by saying that the US military always “strikes lawful targets in accordance with normal procedures.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also said that the administration will follow the law.

“Of course this administration, the United States Armed Forces, will always act within the confines of the law, but with respect to achieving the full objectives of operations going to move forward unabated, and he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration,” Leavitt said on Monday.

Just days before Trump’s Truth Social post threatening the possible targeting of desalination plants, the G7 foreign ministers signed onto a joint statement calling for the immediate end to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed that statement on behalf of the US.

While the threat of potentially illegal strikes coming from Trump related to water resources is a new one, he has made other similar threats throughout the course of this war. In recent weeks Trump threatened to “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants, which legal experts say would also violate international law, if Iran did not reach a diplomatic agreement with the US. Gulf allies similarly raised concerns with Trump administration officials through private channels at the time of that threat, which was also posted on social media.

Striking Iranian desalination plants is also unlikely to attract more allied support in this conflict, something Trump had repeatedly said he does not need but has chastised allies for not providing.

“If you threaten to do something that either could be or is a war crime, it frightens allies, because allies don’t want to be a part of something that could be a war crime,” said Andrew Friedman, a director at the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Earlier this week, an Indian worker was killed ‌in an Iranian attack on a power and water ⁠desalination plant in Kuwait, according to a post from the country’s Ministry ‌of ⁠Electricity and Water. But the war has not escalated to the point where water resources have been widely targeted.

Still, Iran has already shown it will retaliate for attacks on its infrastructure. It has carried out many attacks on energy resources throughout the region.

Whether or not strikes escalate to the point that water becomes a central target for either side remains an open question.

In early March, Iran accused the US of attacking a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island, and Iranian officials warned of retaliation.

“Attacking Iran’s infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned at the time. “The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.”

“The crime committed by US-Zionist alliance in targeting the desalination plant on Qeshm Island was carried out with support of a US base in a neighboring country in south. This aggression will met a proportionate response,” Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said at the time.

A US defense official told CNN that it was not a US strike. But the state of the desalination plant and what caused the alleged disruption remains unclear.

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