1 hour ago
3
The latest round of American strikes on Iran demonstrate that President Trump is willing to make good on his threat to hit Tehran’s power plants and bridges, according to a new report.
While the US has mainly focused on hitting military installations threatening the Strait of Hormuz during its week-long bombing campaign, the attacks have also damaged more than 2,000 points along Iran’s state-run electrical grid, according to Arab media.
Experts say the resulting blackouts were no coincidence as they came within hours of Trump’s warning that Iran’s lights would be forced off if Tehran failed to return to the negotiating table.
“They [US] struck support infrastructure while Trump is threatening to take the power,” Sascha Bruchmann, a research fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Daily Telegraph.
“So there’s now a little bit more of a threat in the air than just pure military targets.”
Mohammad Allah-Dad, the the head of Tavanir — Iran’s state-run Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company — said the latest American strikes have caused about $1 billion in damages to the grid, digital news outlet Iran Wire reported.
The attacks have already put a great strain on the country’s power grid, with Tavanir forced to implement a 4.200-megawatt reduction in capacity due to the damages so far.
The situation would get much worse if the US follows through on Trump’s threats to decimate Iran’s power plants.
“I’ll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we’ll hit energy targets,” Trump told Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” Tuesday.
The president has repeatedly made similar threats since April, warning that the US was willing to attack civilian infrastructure.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, has warned that such attacks would constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.
Regardless of the consequences, Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran division of Israel Defense Intelligence, said Trump will have to find a way to escalate the conflict to break the current stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz.
“The dilemma is quite simple: At the end of the day, if he wants to take control over the straits, he will need to take over the straits,” Citrinowicz told the Wall Street Journal.
“He is not able to reach his military or strategic objectives with the force he has now.”
While Iran has previously scoffed at US threats, Tehran has now ordered the Houthi rebel group in Yemen to close the critical Red Sea trade route should its civilian infrastructure be attacked, three sources told Reuters.
The Iran-backed terror group has reportedly completed such preparations, with drones and missiles deployed near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and awaiting orders.
Attacks on the 20-mile strait that leads out of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean would further throw oil and trade supplies in chaos, with the waterway responsible for the transport of $1 trillion worth of goods every year.
The Red Sea is also notably where Saudi Arabia has transferred the bulk of its oil trade due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with the sea now carrying around 7% of the world’s global energy supply.
With Post Wires
English (US)