The US-Israel war against Iran has escalated again. It continues to undermine the long-term interests of the US nation by destroying Iran’s vital civilian infrastructure and putting the entire economy and environment of the Persian Gulf region at grave risk.
US President Donald Trump promised to support the Iranian protesters, but he has dealt a blow to the ability of the people of Iran to overthrow the regime by conducting the war as if it were a war against the entire nation of Iran instead of the regime in power. Targeting critical infrastructure would mean destruction for the tens of millions of Iranians living in a country that already exists the edge of environmental collapse.
Millions of Iranians despise the Islamic Republic. Just six months ago, they rose up against him, and thousands of them were killed by the government. Some Iranians initially supported the war in the hope that the United States and even Israel would help them end what their rebellion had started. But the war that has been destroying civilians has helped the regime to portray itself as the defender of the Iranian nation instead of its occupant.
The Islamic Republic has managed not only to survive the war but also to cause it major damage to the US military and undermine the world economy. Tehran’s regime has also sent a clear and dangerous message with its attacks on US facilities and its allies in the Persian Gulf: It will destroy the energy and water infrastructure necessary for the lives of tens of millions of people in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states if Iran’s critical infrastructure is targeted.
Surprisingly, Trump he promised that “help (was) on the way” when thousands of unarmed protesters were massacred in January. His war against Iran, however, has created more difficulty for ordinary people, especially in the southern region surrounding the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
The US and Israeli military attacks have been devastating for small communities across Iran, many of which are fiercely opposed to the regime but bear the brunt of the current conflict.
The US claims it is targeting military areas, but the roads, bridges, and railways in southern Iran it is hitting are not only used by the Iranian military but also by civilians. The attacks may be intended to disrupt the movement of Iranian troops and weapons near the Strait of Hormuz, but those same roads and bridges carry food, fuel, medicine and other necessities for ordinary people.
Other goals are worse. A US airstrike in mid-July devastated the area desalination plant in Bonji in western Jask county, part of the largest infrastructure attack on Iran’s southern coast. The destruction of the center caused about 10,000 people lose access for drinking water.
The results were immediate. Groundwater is scarce in this arid coastal region, and many communities rely heavily on desalinated seawater. 20 villages lost water for a few days, at the height of summer, when the regional authorities started supplying water by tanks and drawing from alternative sources.
Tanks may provide temporary relief, but they cannot fully replace the municipal system that serves the scattered villages. During extreme heat, demand increases as transportation and storage of water become more difficult.
Bonji shows why attacking infrastructure is so dangerous. Such attacks can bring immediate suffering to civilians while leaving armed forces hardened and capable of continuing the war. Water, electricity, transportation, food, and health systems are closely linked. Damage to one can quickly spread to others.
Surprisingly, the attack on Iran’s infrastructure has been met with retaliatory attacks against neighboring GCC countries that have US bases. For example, the regime of Iran attack Kuwait electricity and water infrastructure, shutting down several generating units and starting a fire at the desalination plant.
The damage in Kuwait may not produce significant water cuts yet, but the risk is clear. In one of the hottest and driest places on Earth, a desalination plant is a lifesaver. Iran has also attacked water and electricity facilities in Bahrain and earlier in the war Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure. The GCC states are highly dependent on desalination plants for their water needs, and the Islamic Republic has demonstrated the ability to damage or destroy much of the GCC’s desalination and water infrastructure.
This cycle of violence weakens the citizens on both sides of the Persian Gulf rather than leading to the overthrow of the regime. The administration has spent decades moving its most sensitive nuclear and military assets underground, safe from US bombs. The Fordow complex, for example, was built under a mountain, and new underground facilities such as Pickaxe Mountain have been dug near Natanz.
The underground facilities are not only for Iran’s military and nuclear facilities. In a soon interview, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pointed out that tunnels and underground facilities were frequently used by high-level government decision-makers.
Iran’s underground military infrastructure increasingly complicates any effort to distinguish strategic targets from the civilian systems around them.
The administration developed much of its tunneling ability through ostensibly civilian work. Over several decades, the country acquired tunnel boring machines and built mining expertise through metro systems, mines, dams, and inter-basin water transfer projects. Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, the engineering unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and companies owned or controlled by it have played. great responsibilities in Iran dam, water transfer, tunnels, pipelines, transportation, and other infrastructure projects.
The machinery and expertise used to dig a water tunnel or metro line can also be used to build an underground missile or nuclear power plant. That complexity applies to the infrastructure that serves those sites. Roads, power lines, pipelines and water systems can support a strategic center while serving nearby communities. Destroying them would reduce essential services to citizens without destroying what lies beneath the mountain.
This is why US attacks intended to weaken the regime can destroy critical civilian systems without removing the deeply buried facilities they are intended to target.
Several independent Iranian water management engineers familiar with major mining projects have told us they suspect that equipment and tunnels officially associated with mining, water transfer, and metro projects may also have been used to build military and nuclear facilities.
Last year, sources told us about the connection between water projects and nuclear facilities like Fordow. Khatam al-Anbiya and its branches have it to be driven in the civil, nuclear and military sectors, allowing expertise and equipment to move between them. Such institutional integration would enable engineering expertise and equipment developed for civilian projects to be used in sensitive military or nuclear construction.
Iran’s nuclear facilities do not exist alone. They rely on water, electricity, roads, communications, and specialized supply chains that can also serve nearby cities, farms, and factories. In 2006, the governor’s office of Isfahan information that 6.5 million cubic meters of water were transferred to the nuclear plant.
Attacking nuclear-related infrastructure directly creates its own risks. Effects depend largely on the facility and the materials stored there, but damage to an operating reactor, chemical processing plant, cooling system, or nuclear material storage site can release radioactive or toxic material. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly repeated this he warned that attacks on nuclear facilities undermine nuclear security and may have consequences beyond Iran’s borders.
Even when there is no release of radioactive material, war can disrupt inspections, destroy monitoring equipment, scatter records, and make it difficult to quantify nuclear material. Bombs can delay parts of a program without removing the expertise or political motivation behind it. Instead it may convince Iranian leaders that future facilities must be built deeper underground, spread over more areas, and more carefully hidden from inspectors.
Technical skills remain for bombs. Power grids, hospitals, bridges, water treatment plants, and public trust are more difficult to rebuild.
Destroying civilian infrastructure also undermines the ability of Iranians to organize, rebuild, and pursue fundamental political change. People consumed by the search for water, food, medicine, fuel and shelter have little time or energy left for democratic mobilization. Authoritarian governments understand how to use scarcity, fear, and dependency to tighten their grip.
Washington should stop trying to force regime change with military action. The current war has proved counterproductive, as it has set back Iran’s organic revolution before the war. The United States should avoid targeting drinking water, sanitation, health, and civilian energy systems. It should also ensure that blockades and military operations do not interfere with emergency maintenance or delivery of medicines, water treatment chemicals, spare parts, generators and other equipment needed to keep essential civil services running.
Otherwise, attacks against water and power will be a common form of revenge in an area that cannot save them. The stakes are even greater when we are dealing with an administration that has repeatedly shown itself willing to pursue a scorched earth strategy, sacrificing the country’s infrastructure and its people to preserve its own power. Weakening the government and breaking the country are not the same thing.
Systems may collapse, and armies may leave, but poisoned aquifers, collapsed power grids, and damaged water systems can condemn citizens to displacement, disease, and poverty for generations. A war presented as an attempt to change who leads Iran must not destroy the systems that keep the country governed. If the stated goal is to give Iranians a better future, that future cannot be built on the ruins of the systems they need to survive.
