Iran Issues Indirect Threat As Media List Key Facilities Including UAE Nuclear Plant

New Delhi: Iran warned Monday it will strike electrical plants across the Middle East if US President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to bomb power stations in the Islamic Republic.

Trump’s self-declared 48-hour deadline expires just before midnight GMT Tuesday, further raising the stakes of the ongoing war with Iran that has disrupted global energy supplies, sending natural gas and gasoline prices soaring.

The threat by Tehran puts at risk both electrical supplies and water in the Gulf Arab states, particularly as the desert nations commingle their power stations with desalination plants crucial for supplying drinking water.

After Iran threatened power plants across the Mideast, news outlets published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant. The report by the semiofficial Fars news agency, close to its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, appeared to be an indirect threat to the sites, including desalination plants in the Middle East.

The news agency has reported the list of 11 key facilities for electricity and desalination production in the Gulf states and Jordan. The sites are crucial for meeting the essential needs of the region's population and industries.

The list included the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant, which has four reactors out in the western deserts of the country near its border with Saudi Arabia and the Taweelah Desalination Plant. Saudi Arabia's Ras Al-Khair power and desalination plant, and the Shuqaiq power and desalination plant are also in the list.

It also names the two projects, which are the main pillars of energy production in Kuwait, the Al-Zour Power and Desalination Plant and the Al-Zour South Thermal Power Plant.

Jordan's Aqaba and Samra thermal power plants, which play a notable role in the country's electricity production, are among the key facilities listed. In Bahrain, the Al-Dour power and desalination plant, located in the south of the country on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is also under threat.

Meanwhile, Qatar's two major projects in the energy and water sector, the Umm Al Houl power plant and the Ras Laffan/Ras Qartas power plant, have a significant share in meeting domestic needs.

These infrastructures cover a significant portion of the region's energy and desalinated water production capacity, and some of them rank among the world's largest infrastructure projects. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency also published the list.

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