By Maayan Lubell, Alexander Cornwell and Idrees Ali
TEL AVIV/JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) – Iran will attack Israel’s power plants and plants supplying U.S. bases in the Gulf if President Donald Trump carries out his threat to “obliterate” Iran’s power network, the country’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Monday.
The statement seemingly retracted earlier threats to desalination plants in the region, which are crucial for providing drinking water in Gulf countries.
“The lying … U.S. President has claimed that the Revolutionary Guards intends to attack the water desalination plants and cause hardship to the people of the countries in the region,” said the statement shared on state media.
“We are determined to respond to any threat at the same level as it creates in terms of deterrence … If you hit electricity, we hit electricity.”
On Saturday, Trump warned that Iranian power plants would be destroyed if Tehran failed to “fully open” the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping within 48 hours. Trump set a Monday deadline of around 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 GMT).
Iranian attacks have effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, causing the worst oil crisis since the 1970s.
More than 2,000 people have been killed during the war the U.S. and Israel launched on February 28, which has upended markets, spiked fuel costs, fuelled global inflation fears and convulsed the postwar Western alliance.
The threat of strikes on Gulf electricity grids on Sunday raised the fear of mass disruption to desalination for drinking water, and further unsettled oil markets, with prices opening choppy in Asia trading.
After more than three weeks of heavy U.S. and Israeli bombardment that officials say has sharply reduced Iran’s missile capabilities, Tehran has continued to demonstrate its ability to strike back.
Air raid sirens sounded across parts of northern and central Israel, including in Tel Aviv, and the occupied West Bank overnight on Sunday, warning of incoming missiles from Iran.
The Israeli military said early Monday it had begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure in Tehran.
The Washington Post on Monday reported on social media Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was “injured, isolated, and not responding to messages directed to him.” Earlier this month an Iranian official told Reuters the country’s new Supreme Leader had been lightly injured.
Khamenei succeeded his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of strikes on February 28. He has not been seen in public since his elevation.
Iranian news agencies said six people were killed and 43 injured in strikes on residential buildings in the western Khorramabad city.
The Iranian Red Crescent posted a video on Monday of a residential building in the affluent north of Tehran, with most of its facade destroyed and emergency staff rescuing someone on a stretcher from the upper floors.
Elsewhere in the region, the Saudi defence ministry said early Monday two ballistic missiles had been launched towards Riyadh. One missile was intercepted while the other fell in an uninhabited area.
ATTACKS ON POWER PLANTS COULD BE CATASTROPHIC
Trump’s warning to strike Iran’s power network came less than a day after he signalled the United States might be considering winding down the conflict, even as U.S. Marines and heavy landing craft were heading to the region.
While attacks on electricity could hurt Iran, they could be 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% of the water consumed in Bahrain and Qatar. Such plants use seawater to meet more than 80% of drinking water needs in the United Arab Emirates, and 50% of the water supply in Saudi Arabia.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said it would also mean the Strait of Hormuz 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 another statement.
Iranian media on Sunday 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”. Only a few ships, including Indian-flagged and a Pakistani oil tanker, have reportedly been allowed safe passage.
‘WEEKS MORE FIGHTING’
The war has been taking place alongside a confrontation on a separate front between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, backed by Iran.
Israel said on Sunday its troops had raided a number of the armed group’s sites in southern Lebanon.
Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters Israel expects “weeks more of fighting against Iran and Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah said it had attacked several border areas in northern Israel. Israeli emergency services said one person was killed in a kibbutz near the border. Israel later said it was checking whether the death was caused by Israeli fire.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel since it entered the regional war on March 2, prompting an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington, Andrew Mills in Doha, Timour Azhari in Riyadh, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv; Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Alexandra Alper and Michael Perry; Editing by Diane Craft and Stephen Coates)
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