Trump Threatens Iran's Desalination Plants. Legal Experts Say It Would Be a War Crime. Gulf Allies Are Alarmed.

What Trump Said

On Monday, March 30, President Donald Trump threatened to destroy all desalination plants in Iran, according to reporting by Cronkite News (ASU) and CNN. He did not specify in what circumstances such strikes would occur, but the threat appeared aimed at pressuring Tehran into agreeing to a ceasefire or diplomatic deal.

When asked by reporters about targeting desalination plants, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, according to Cronkite News: "Of course this administration, the United States Armed Forces, will always act within the confines of the law, but with respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated, and he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration."

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked directly about the potential targeting of desalination plants at a Pentagon briefing. According to USA Today, Caine said the military carefully reviews the risk to civilians and legal considerations in selecting targets, and that the U.S. military always "strikes lawful targets in accordance with normal procedures." He declined to discuss any specific targets.

What International Law Says

The legal consensus among international law scholars is unambiguous: striking civilian water infrastructure is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibits attacks on "objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population," and lists "drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works" by name as protected targets. The prohibition applies regardless of the military situation, except in the narrow circumstance where such a facility is used exclusively to supply water to enemy armed forces — not civilians.

Marko Milanovic, a professor of public international law at the University of Reading, told Cronkite News: "Desalination plants are generally civilian objects, and as such protected from attack. They also enjoy special protection as objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population." He added that unless a plant supplies water only to a military base, ordering such a strike would be "manifestly unlawful."

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, told CNN: "Desalination plants are purely civilian infrastructure. There is no legal argument whatsoever for attacking them," and stated that those advising Trump have "a responsibility not to implement any illegal order."

Ioannis Kalpouzos, a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School, told Cronkite News that U.S. domestic law mirrors international law on this point: "In U.S. domestic law, you have the same rule by implication, in that the obligations to obey orders only apply to lawful orders."

Robert Goldman, a law professor at American University who directs its War Crimes Research Office, described the difficulty of enforcement: "This is not an administration that in any way feels restrained by international law." Goldman predicted, however, that any U.S. military member who refused an order to strike a civilian desalination plant "would have pro bono counsel from former judge advocate generals under Republicans and Democrats alike."

Separately, legal analysis published by Opinio Juris on March 31 noted that attacks on desalination plants cannot even be framed as lawful reprisals: "Any attack on them, including those framed as reprisals, is generally prohibited, except in the circumstances enshrined under Additional Protocol I."

Why Gulf Allies Are Alarmed

The threat is particularly alarming to U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, because those countries — not Iran — depend most heavily on desalination for survival.

According to CNN's reporting, after Trump's Truth Social post on Monday, "some Gulf countries reiterated grave concerns to the Trump administration about any strikes on civilian infrastructure and the risk of an intensifying tit-for-tat escalation, according to four regional sources." The countries have raised concerns through private channels but have avoided publicly rebuking the president.

One regional official told CNN: "It will be a huge catastrophe if they strike, we rely on desalination for almost all drinking water."

Iran gets only a small fraction of its drinking water from desalination. But Qatar and Bahrain produce more than half of their drinking water through desalination, according to CNN. Kuwait relies on desalination for nearly all of its potable water. If Iran retaliated against U.S. strikes on its desalination plants by targeting similar facilities in Gulf countries — a pattern it has already demonstrated throughout the war — the humanitarian consequences would be severe.

Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, told Cronkite News: "These rural communities and villagers… have struggled with having access to clean water during peacetime. During war times, things would be much more catastrophic and problematic."

Andrew Friedman, a director at the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNN: "If you threaten to do something that either could be or is a war crime, it frightens allies, because allies don't want to be a part of something that could be a war crime."

Iran Has Already Struck Gulf Desalination Plants — and Is Escalating

Iran did not wait for the U.S. threat to escalate water infrastructure attacks. The pattern of strikes has already expanded significantly.

On Monday, March 30, Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity and Water announced that an Iranian attack struck a power and water desalination plant, killing one Indian worker and causing "significant material damage," according to Newsmax and The National News (UAE).

Iran denied responsibility and accused Israel. Kuwait's government called it a "brutal Iranian attack."

In Bahrain, an Iranian attack on March 8 hit one of the country's desalination plants, according to Cronkite News. Bahrain, where two-thirds of drinking water is produced through desalination, reported the strike the day after Iran accused the U.S. of hitting a desalination plant on Iran's Qeshm Island on March 7. The U.S. and Israel both denied that strike.

On Wednesday, April 1, Iran escalated further. According to The National News (UAE), Iran struck Kuwait's international airport, with Kuwaiti Defence Minister Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al Sabah inspecting damage to radar systems after the attack caused a large fire and material damage to fuel tanks owned by the Kuwait Aviation Fuelling Company. No casualties were reported in that attack. In Bahrain, civil defence crews responded to a fire at an unnamed company after an Iranian attack.

A tanker was also struck by a projectile near Doha, Qatar, causing hull damage at the waterline, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. The crew were reported safe.

The G7 Statement and Rubio's Signature

Just days before Trump's Truth Social post threatening desalination plants, the G7 foreign ministers signed a joint statement calling for the immediate end to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, according to CNN. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed that statement on behalf of the United States.

The juxtaposition — Rubio signing a G7 commitment against civilian infrastructure attacks while Trump simultaneously threatened such attacks — has not been addressed publicly by the State Department.

Iran's Accusation: The U.S. Struck First

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media that the U.S. struck a desalination plant on Qeshm Island on March 7, providing water to 30 villages, and called it "a blatant and desperate crime." He added: "Attacking Iran's infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences. The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran."

The U.S. and Israel denied the strike. The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a separate announcement reported by The National News on April 1, confirmed that a member of the Iranian Red Crescent had been killed in an air strike — adding to the documented civilian cost of the conflict.

The Larger Pattern of Threats Outside International Law

Trump's desalination threat is the latest in a series of statements legal experts say contradict the laws of armed conflict. According to Axios, at a Pentagon briefing on March 13, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared "no quarter, no mercy for our enemies" — a phrase the Pentagon's own Law of War Manual describes as a war crime.

Trump has also threatened to "hit and obliterate" Iranian power plants, which legal experts say would also violate international law if executed against civilian-serving facilities. Gulf allies raised concerns about that threat as well, according to CNN.

Whether these threats represent negotiating leverage or genuine intent remains unclear. What is documented is that Gulf allies are alarmed, international lawyers are unequivocal about the legal prohibition, and the pattern of escalating infrastructure strikes — by both Iran and the U.S.-led coalition — is accelerating as the conflict enters its fifth week.