\n<\/p>\n
Iran said on Sunday it would strike the energy and water systems of its Gulf neighbours in retaliation if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through with a threat to hit Iran\u2019s electricity grid in 48 hours, escalating the three-week-old war.<\/p>\n
The prospect of tit-for-tat strikes on civilian infrastructure could deepen the regional crisis and further rattle global markets when they reopen on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said hours later that it was striking Tehran in response.<\/p>\n
Trump threatened overnight to \u201cobliterate\u201d Iran\u2019s power plants if Tehran did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, barely a day after he talked about \u201cwinding down\u201d the war. He made the new threat as U.S. Marines and heavy landing craft are heading to the region.<\/p>\n
But while attacks on electricity could hurt Iran, they would be potentially catastrophic for its Gulf neighbors, which consume around five times as much power per capita. Electricity makes their gleaming desert cities habitable, and most of them produce nearly all of their drinking water by purifying it from the sea.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf wrote on X that critical infrastructure and energy facilities in the Middle East could be \u201cirreversibly destroyed\u201d should Iranian power plants be attacked.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards said it would also mean the shipping lane where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits along Iran\u2019s southern coast would remain shut.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed and will not be opened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt,\u201d the Guards said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s threat has now placed a 48-hour ticking time bomb of elevated uncertainty over markets,\u201d said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore, who expects stock markets to fall when they reopen on Monday.<\/p>\n
Oil prices jumped on Friday, ending the day at their highest in nearly four years.<\/p>\n
Markets already under severe strain from blockaded shipping were further rattled last week when Israel attacked a major gas field in Iran, and Tehran responded with strikes on neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, raising the prospect of damage hindering energy output even if tankers resume sailing.<\/p>\n
Iranian attacks have effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, causing the worst oil crisis since the 1970s. Its near-closure sent European gas prices surging as much as 35% last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Iran doesn\u2019t 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!\u201d Trump posted on social media around 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 GMT) on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Iranian media quoted the country\u2019s representative to the International Maritime Organisation as saying the strait remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to \u201cIran\u2019s enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali Mousavi said passage through the waterway was possible by coordinating security and safety arrangements with Tehran.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters said on Sunday if the U.S. hit Iran\u2019s fuel and energy infrastructure, Iran would attack all U.S. energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure in the region.<\/p>\n
Striking major Iranian power plants could trigger blackouts, crippling everything from pumps and refineries to export terminals and military command centers.<\/p>\n
The United States and Israel say they have seriously degraded Iran\u2019s ability to project force beyond its borders with their three weeks of intensive air strikes.<\/p>\n
But Tehran fired its first known long-range ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) on Friday towards a U.S.-British Indian Ocean \u200cmilitary base, expanding the risk of attacks beyond the Middle East.<\/p>\n
An Iranian strike also landed near Israel\u2019s secretive nuclear reactor about 13 km (8 miles) southeast of the city of Dimona.<\/p>\n
The war has been taking place alongside a confrontation on a separate front between Israel and Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah, backed by Iran, with Israel saying on Sunday its troops had raided a number of the armed group\u2019s sites in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Israel said it had instructed the military to accelerate the demolition of Lebanese homes in \u201cfrontline villages\u201d to end threats to Israelis, and to destroy all bridges over Lebanon\u2019s Litani River which it said were used for \u201cterrorist activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo appealed for an end to the conflict. \u201cThe death and suffering caused by this war are a scandal to the whole human family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
(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 Lisa Shumaker, Michael Perry, William Maclean; Editing by Alexander Smith, Peter Graff and Jon Boyle)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n