{"id":555088,"date":"2026-03-30T23:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/555088\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:39:11","slug":"trump-threatens-to-blow-up-desalination-plants-in-iran-if-no-deal-reached-us-israel-war-on-iran-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/555088\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump threatens to \u2018blow up\u2019 desalination plants in Iran if no deal reached | US-Israel war on Iran News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has renewed his threat to \u201cblow up\u201d a range of civilian infrastructure<\/a> in Iran, including all of the country\u2019s desalination plants, in a move that would threaten the water source for millions of people and that experts say would be illegal.<\/p>\n

The United States president has been regularly warning Iran about possible US strikes against energy and electricity facilities, but on Monday, he added water stations to the list of targets.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran,\u201d Trump wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cgreat progress\u201d has been made in the talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, if for any reason a deal is<\/a> not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately \u2018Open for Business,\u2019 we will conclude our lovely \u2018stay\u2019 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 \u2018touched\u2019,\u201d the US president said.<\/p>\n

International law explicitly bans making civilian sites the \u201cobject of attack or of reprisals\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yusra Suedi, assistant professor in international law at the University of Manchester, said Trump\u2019s threat \u201creinforces the climate of impunity around collective punishment in warfare\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is clearly an act of collective punishment, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law. You can\u2019t deliberately harm an entire civilian population to pressure its government,\u201d Suedi told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Fears of collective punishment and war crimes<\/p>\n

The Fourth Geneva Convention says: \u201cCollective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at the rights group DAWN, said Trump\u2019s threats represent \u201cclear, public evidence of criminal intent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThreatening to obliterate a nation\u2019s power grid, oil infrastructure and water supply to coerce its government is not a negotiating tactic; it is textbook collective punishment and a war crime,\u201d Jarrar told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

The White House said later on Monday that Trump has made it clear to Iranians that the US has \u201ccapabilities beyond their wildest imagination\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about the illegality of targeting civilian sites, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt<\/a> told reporters: \u201cThis administration and the United States Armed Forces will always act within the confines of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Annie Shiel, US Director at Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), described Trump\u2019s threats as \u201cappalling\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is threatening to destroy infrastructure \u2014 like electrical and water facilities \u2014 that is essential for civilian survival,\u201d Shiel told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impacts of such attacks would be devastating and widespread: think hospitals without power for life-saving care, illnesses from a lack of clean water, and people completely cut off from communications, unable to reach loved ones or access emergency information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump first issued a threat to target Iran\u2019s electrical grid and energy infrastructure on March 21 while also giving Tehran a 48-hour deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The US president later pushed the deadline back by five days before extending it again<\/a> until April 6.<\/p>\n

Over the past week, Trump has insisted that Iran is \u201cbegging\u201d to make a deal and talks between Washington and Tehran are under way.<\/p>\n

While Tehran has acknowledged receiving a 15-point ceasefire proposal from Washington through intermediaries, several Iranian officials have denied direct negotiations with the US.<\/p>\n

US timeline \u2018does remain\u2019<\/p>\n

Both Iran and the US have suggested that they are winning the war. Leavitt said on Monday that the initial timeline of four to six week that the Pentagon had set out for concluding the war \u201cdoes remain\u201d. The conflict is in its fifth week.<\/p>\n

Despite the killing of several top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, by the US and Israel, there is no public evidence to back Trump\u2019s claim that there is a new government in the country.<\/p>\n

Khamenei was replaced by his son Mojtaba, an appointment<\/a> that Trump denounced.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s frequent threats, Iran has continued to fire missiles and drones across the region and to close down the Strait of Hormuz, sending energy prices soaring across the world.<\/p>\n

The Iranian ruling system has not faced any major antigovernment protests or defections during the conflict as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard<\/a> Corps spearheads the country\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n

So far, Trump\u2019s threats to \u201cobliterate\u201d Iran\u2019s civilian infrastructure have not deterred Tehran\u2019s strikes or affected the defiance Iranian officials are expressing.<\/p>\n

This month, Iran accused the US and Israel of striking a desalination plant on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Separately, authorities have said Iranian attacks damaged water facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran, which is less dependent on desalination plants for drinking water than some of its Gulf neighbours, has threatened civilian infrastructure across the region if its own facilities are targeted by the US and Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has renewed his threat to \u201cblow up\u201d a range of civilian infrastructure in Iran, including all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12,3,21,19,22,20,25,1209,231941,24],"class_list":["post-555088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}