DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — After Iran threatened power plants across the Middle East, news outlets published a list of such facilities, including a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates.
Reports from the semi-official Fars news agency, which has close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, appeared to pose an indirect threat to the sites, including desalination plants in the Middle East.
The list also includes the UAE’s Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, which has four reactors in the country’s western desert near the border with Saudi Arabia.
The list was also published by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
Tehran’s threats put Gulf Arab states’ power supplies and water supplies at risk, especially as the desert nation mixes its power stations with desalination plants critical for supplying drinking water.
Trump’s self-declared 48-hour deadline expired just before midnight GMT on Tuesday, further raising the risk of an ongoing war with Iran that has disrupted global energy supplies and sent natural gas and gasoline prices soaring.
This is a breaking news update. Early AP reporting follows.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran warned Monday that it would attack power plants across the Middle East if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to bomb power plants in the Islamic Republic.
Tehran’s threats put Gulf Arab states’ power supplies and water supplies at risk, especially as the desert nation mixes its power stations with desalination plants critical for supplying drinking water.
Trump said the United States would attack Iran’s power stations unless Iran lifted its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. His self-announced 48-hour deadline expired just before midnight GMT on Tuesday, further raising the risk of an ongoing war with Iran that has disrupted global energy supplies and sent gas and gasoline prices soaring.
“If trends continue in this direction, no country will be immune to the consequences of this crisis,” said Fatih Birol, director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
He told the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Monday that the crisis in the Middle East was having a worse impact on energy markets than the two oil crises and the Russia-Ukraine war of the 1970s combined.
Israel launched new attacks on the Iranian capital on Monday, saying it had “begun a massive strike” on infrastructure targets in Tehran, without immediately elaborating.
Gen. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, claimed in an interview aired on Monday that Iran was launching missiles and drones from densely populated areas and suggested those areas would be targeted.
“You need to stay indoors now,” Cooper told Iranian civilians in an interview with Persian-language satellite network Iran International that aired early Monday.
“As the president has said, there will be a clear signal at some point that you can come out.”
UAE air defense forces intercepted a ballistic missile near Al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi. One person was injured when shrapnel hit the ground.
Bahrain and Kuwait sounded the alarm, and Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said it intercepted a missile aimed at Riyadh and destroyed a drone over the country’s oil-rich eastern province.
Oil prices have increased by more than 50% since the war began
Oil prices remained high in early trading, with the international standard Brent crude oil price at around $112 a barrel, up nearly 55% since Israel and the United States launched a war against Iran on February 28.
The war also caused wild swings in global stock markets as traders grew increasingly concerned about the world’s energy crisis and other problems.
In addition to targeting Israel and U.S. bases, Iran has also attacked the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors.
It also tightly controls shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the high seas and through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and other vital commodities are transported.
A small group of ships is passing through the strait, which Iran insists remains open — just not to the United States, Israel or its allies.
Trump said in a social media post that the United States would “destroy” Iran’s power plants if Tehran did not open the strategic waterway to all ships.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that if the United States did so, Iran would respond by striking power plants in all areas that supply power to U.S. bases, as well as economic, industrial and energy infrastructure in which Americans have a stake.
“There is no doubt that we will do this,” Iranian state television said in a statement.
Iran says it will completely shut down the critical waterway if Trump follows through on his threat to attack Iranian power plants.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also said Iran would consider critical infrastructure in the region as legitimate targets, including energy and desalination facilities critical to drinking water in Gulf countries.
U.S. commander says operations against Iran “are ongoing or planned”
In his first one-on-one interview since the war began, General Cooper said operations against Iran were “ongoing or planned” and that the United States and Israel were targeting infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to destroy Iran’s ability to rebuild its military.
“This is not just a threat today,” he said. “We’re neutralizing future threats, whether they’re drones, missiles or naval forces.”
He said Iran could end the war quickly if it stopped fighting back, but did not say whether that would prompt Israel and the United States to make concessions before all infrastructure targets were destroyed.
“They can absolutely stop this war now if they choose to do that,” he said of Iran. “They need to stop launching missiles and drones from populated areas, putting the good people of Iran at risk. … They need to stop attacking civilians across the Middle East immediately.”
Iran’s health ministry said Iran’s death toll in the war has exceeded 1,500. In Israel, Iranian attacks have killed 15 people. More than a dozen civilians have been killed in attacks in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
In Lebanon, authorities say Israeli attacks targeting the Iran-linked militia Hezbollah have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million. Meanwhile, Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
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Rising reports from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Charlotte Graham-McRae in Wellington, New Zealand, and Sally Abu Aljod in Beirut contributed to this report.
