US-Iran Strikes Now Target Power, Water Facilities. Peace Hopes Recede
The US and Iran continued the relentless attacks and counterattacks on infrastructure and military targets on Saturday, as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified, plunging the June ceasefire to abysmal depths.
The US Central Command on Saturday touted that its the seventh straight night of strikes had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.”
The region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the key Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s oil and energy supplies passed through the chokepoint controlled by Iran before the conflict began following US-Israeli strikes four months ago.
There is no talk on the resumption of negotiations. A top Iranian official, its military advisor Mohsin Rezaee said on television that the “policy of negotiating during the war is over.”
A US air attack has left nearly 10,000 residents in southern Iran without water, according to Iranian media reports. Kuwait said Saturday it intercepted Iranian missiles and drones and that a water desalination plant was struck, causing a fire, Associated Press reported.
Kuwait depends on desalination for 90 percent of its drinking water, and these are indicators that the escalating conflict is now targeting public infrastructure. Air sirens sounded multiple times in Bahrain.
Tehran also made its first acknowledgement about “attacks on power infrastructure” during the renewed US airstrikes. Its Energy Ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat.” It did not specify the installations hit.
Oil prices, which had dipped after a ceasefire was brokered in June, have started to rise. On Friday, it rose to above $86 a barrel, near its highest level in a month. The movement of commercial ship crossings via the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to a three-week low, according to an international shipping tracker.
President Donald Trump said over the week that US has made big gains. “We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” he said.
US officials acknowledged that 10 Army soldiers and three Navy sailors had been injured since Monday. Since the war began, 14 U.S. service members have been killed and 427 wounded.
The scenario has gone back to where it was during the initial months of conflict. The US and Iran are sparring over the Strait of Hormuz, commercial vessels remain stranded, and strikes happen throughout the turbulent region. Negotiations have also halted and international mediators have gone silent. Iran has shut the Strait and the US has reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.
The regional players are seeking ways or rerouting increasing amount of its energy resources through pipelines, but the AP report said this wasn’t enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait. A cessation of hostilities seem more distant than it was at the start of the conflict late in February.
