In separate remarks to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said he would decimate Iran if it did not hand over “nuclear dust” (uranium) while claiming Tehran has almost surrendered and offered the US 20 boats laden with oil as a “tribute”.
“If they don’t do that (give up nuclear quest) they are not going to have a country,” Trump said in an explicit threat of annihilation.
Trump’s threat to decimate Iran’s infrastructure came even as Iran defiantly continued to strike US assets in the region despite its military being attrited by American and Israeli strikes. In a dangerous escalation that brought the region’s drinking water infrastructure under fire on top of oil assets under attack, Kuwait accused Iran of bombing its desalination plants, a charge Tehran denied and claimed it was Israel which had attacked the plants to blame Iran.
Many of the region’s countries depend on desalination plants for their drinking water needs (90% in case of Kuwait) and any targeting of such plants, whether by the US or Israel or Iran, is liable to be treated as a war crime. Many such plants are run by workers from India.
Trump’s public threat to hit desalination plants constitutes an unprecedented escalation, coming on top of US attacks on educational institutions – authenticated by the western media – that have killed scores of students. Trump’s war on Iran, viewed as reckless by scores of American critics, is hugely unpopular in the US, including among his MAGA base.
Following yet another purported strike on an Iranian university, Tehran said Monday that it reserved the right to strike back at US institutions in West Asia, causing Qatar, an academic hub in the region, to evacuate all students housing in Doha’s ‘Education City’. US universities such as Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, and Texas A&M have campuses in Doha.
Tehran warned that it would hit back at residences of US and Israeli officials in the region after being subjected to targeted assassination of its leadership.
