Donald Trump’s recent threat to demolish Iranian infrastructure, specifically targeting desalination plants, raises alarms among experts who foresee significant unintended consequences. These specialists caution that such actions could provoke retaliatory strikes, potentially leaving millions across the Gulf region without access to drinking water within a matter of days.

In a social media post last week, the former president suggested he might intensify the conflict by “obliterating … possibly all desalination plants” in Iran. This move is intended to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic, pushing them towards negotiations to reach an agreement by a specified deadline, 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday. However, experts caution that striking these facilities, which convert seawater into potable water, could adversely affect U.S. allies rather than Iran itself.

In conversations with the Daily Mail, three water-security experts noted that attacking Iranian desalination sites would have minimal impact on the country’s overall water supply. Iran derives a mere 2-3 percent of its water from these plants. Despite this, the broader ramifications of such actions could be devastating, potentially destabilizing the region and impacting access to vital resources.

Trump is trying to ramp up pressure on the Islamic Republic to come to the negotiating table and make a deal by 8pm ET on Tuesday, but experts warn that if he follows through on striking the sites that turn seawater into fresh, drinkable water, it will be US allies who will ultimately suffer. 

Three water-security experts told the Daily Mail that US strikes on Iranian desalination sites would barely dent its overall water supply. The country gets a measly 2-3 percent of its water from desalination. 

But the repercussions of such action could be devastating. 

‘What I’m worried about is that if they hit the ones in Iran, Iran will retaliate – and then it can be a disaster for all the other countries, because in all the other countries they rely completely on desalination,’ explained Professor Menachem Elimelech of Rice University, a water and energy expert. 

If Iran hits the desalination plants in Qatar, whose civilians get 99 percent of their drinking water from the plants, its roughly 3 million inhabitants would need to flee the country within a week to avoid a mass casualty event, Elimelech explained. 

‘If they hit the water, there probably will be what we call Day Zero. There will not be any water for the city. And in a few days, in a week, I mean, the people will die.’

President Donald Trump threatened to obliterate all of Iran’s desalination plants. Experts warn that US strikes on the sites will backfire and open up desalination-reliant Gulf countries to potentially disastrous retaliatory strikes 

Smoke rises from Kuwait’s International airport on Friday after a reported drone strike. A major energy and desalination plant in Kuwait was hit by alleged Iranian strikes on Friday. The country gets over 90 percent of its water supply from desalination

That asymmetry is the crux of the danger. 

In Iran, roughly 2.5 million people rely on desalination, while roughly 60 million people across the Arabian Peninsula rely on the plants for water. 

Desalination supplies about 70 percent of water in Saudi Arabia, around 80 percent in Israel and Oman and over 90 percent in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. The UAE gets roughly half its water from the technology. 

Attacks on water plants are already underway. Recent reports indicate that airstrikes hit a desalination plant on Iran’s Qeshm Island, leaving it inoperable for over 100,000 residents. Tehran blamed the US and Israel, claims both denied, although the island’s strategically critical location in the Strait of Hormuz offers a plausible military rationale for the attack. 

Days later, Iran struck an energy and desalination plant in Kuwait, damaging a service building and killing a worker. Gulf nations uniformly condemned the Iranian attack; the Islamic Republic blamed Israel for it. 

Professor Kaveh Madani, a former Iranian government official and United Nations water security scientist, told the Daily Mail Trump may not fully grasp how much he’s playing with the fire.

Iran accused the US of attacking a desalination plant on Qeshm Island, affecting the water supply for 30 villages

The Sorek desalination plant operates in Rishon LeZion, Israel, which gets about 80 percent of its drinking water from desalination plants

The Pentagon continues to strike Iranian targets as Trump pushes for a deal

‘I don’t know why President Trump explicitly mentioned desalination plants, because that’s not one of the vulnerabilities of Iran,’ he said.

‘But Iran’s adversaries in this conflict all heavily rely on desalination, including Israel and the smaller states that are highly vulnerable. If that becomes normalized, I think the consequences would be catastrophic.’

Targeting the critical water infrastructure would likely amount to a war crime, the experts said. 

‘Water infrastructures, civilian infrastructures like this, should not be legitimate targets of war… water infrastructure is explicitly prohibited under international law, Geneva Conventions,’ Michael Christopher Low, Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah, told the Daily Mail.

Madani added: ‘Overall, these are facilities that serve the civilian population, and attacking them is a war crime and is against the international humanitarian law.’

Central Command posts photos showing Iranian military capabilities continue to decline 

JD Vance led a frantic last-minute push Sunday night to secure a peace deal with Iranian leaders

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.

Meanwhile, the countdown to Trump’s bombing ‘hell’ on Iran is getting closer. 

Vice President JD Vance led a frantic last-minute push Sunday night to secure a peace deal with Iranian leaders after Trump threatened to rain ‘hell’ down on Tehran ahead of his looming deadline.

The late night negotiations produced a Pakistan-brokered peace plan calling for an immediate ceasefire, followed by further talks within a 15 to 20 day window, according to Reuters.

Trump threatened to ‘blow up everything’ in Iran, including civilian infrastructure, if the Islamic regime failed to strike a deal by Tuesday at 8pm ET.

But the plan negotiated is unlikely to immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz and has yet to receive the president’s approval, per a White House official as of Monday morning.