Kuwait on Sunday accused Iran of “dangerous escalation” after another attack on the country’s power plants and water desalination facilities.
The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said the latest strike on its power generation station and water facility Saturday amounted to a violation of international law barring such attacks against critical civilian infrastructure.
Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy described the attacks as a form of “heinous Iranian aggression” after other assaults over the weekend on facilities overseen by the agency.
The ministry said a fire had been put out following Saturday’s attack on its facilities, with repair currently under way to avoid power and water shortages.
Kuwait, which houses American military bases and troops, has repeatedly fallen under attack from Iran in the tit-for-tat strikes between Washington and Tehran.
About 90% of Kuwait’s drinking water comes from desalination, in which salt is removed from seawater — typically by pushing it through ultrafine membranes in a process known as reverse osmosis.
Approximately 86% of nearby Oman’s potable water and 70% of Saudi Arabia’s drinking water comes from the same process.
The continuing attacks on Kuwait’s desalination plants come after the US reportedly hit Iran’s own water facility in the southern Hormozgan province, according to Tehran’s IRNA state media.
The strike was said to have destroyed the desalination plant and cut off water supplies for about 10,000 people, with another such plant allegedly damaged in Iran’s Qeshm Island.
President Trump had long warned that the US would target Iranian civilian infrastructure, including bridges, power plants and water facilitiesm if Tehran did not return to the negotiating table.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, has warned that attacks on water plants in the Middle East would constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.
With Post wires
