Iran said on Sunday it would strike the energy and water systems of its Gulf neighbours in retaliation if US President Donald Trump follows through with a threat delivered a day earlier to hit Iran's electricity grid in 48 hours, escalating the three-week-old war.

The prospect of tit-for-tat strikes on civilian infrastructure could further rattle global markets, and threaten the livelihoods of millions of civilians in the region who rely almost exclusively in some cases ⁠on desalination plants for water.

Air raid sirens sounded across Israel from the early hours of Sunday, warning of incoming missiles from Iran, after scores of people were hurt overnight in two separate attacks in the southern Israeli towns of Arad and Dimona.

The Israeli military said hours later that it was striking Tehran in response.

Trump issued his warning on Saturday evening, less than a day after signalling the United States might be considering winding down the conflict, even as US Marines and heavy landing craft are heading to the region.

“If Iran’s fuel and energy infrastructure is attacked by the enemy, all energy infrastructure, as well as information technology...and water desalination facilities, belonging to the US and the regime in the region will be targeted pursuant to previous warnings,” Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, according to state media.

But while attacks on electricity could hurt Iran, they would be potentially catastrophic for its Gulf neighbours, which consume around five times as much power per capita.

Electricity makes their gleaming desert cities habitable, in part by powering the desalination plants that produce 100 percent of the water consumed in Bahrain and Qatar. Such plants use seawater to meet more than 80 percent of drinking water needs in the United Arab Emirates, and 50 percent of the water supply in Saudi Arabia.

Iran's Parliament ⁠Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf doubled down, writing on X that critical infrastructure and energy facilities in the Middle East could be "irreversibly destroyed" should Iranian power plants be attacked.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards said ⁠they would also mean the shipping lane where a fifth ⁠of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits along Iran's southern coast would remain shut.

"The Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed and will not be opened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt," the Guards said in a statement.

More than 2,000 people have been killed during the war the US and Israel launched on February 28, which has upended markets, spiked fuel costs, fuelled global inflation fears ⁠and convulsed the postwar Western alliance.

"If Iran doesn't FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!" Trump posted on social media at around 23.45 GMT on Saturday.

Iranian media quoted the country's representative to the International Maritime Organisation as saying the strait remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to "Iran's enemies".

Ali Mousavi said passage through the waterway was possible by coordinating security and safety arrangements with Tehran. Ship-tracking data shows some vessels, such as Indian-flagged ships and a Pakistani oil tanker, have negotiated safe passage through the strait. But the vast majority of ships have remained holed up inside.

The United States and Israel say they have seriously degraded Iran's ability to project force beyond its borders with their three weeks of intensive air strikes. But Tehran fired its first known long-range ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000 km on Friday towards a US-British Indian Ocean military base, expanding the risk of attacks beyond the Middle East.

An Iranian strike also landed near Israel's secretive nuclear reactor about 13 km southeast of the city of Dimona. (Reuters)
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Last updated: 2026-03-23 HKT 07:07



Edited by Cecil Wong