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For decades, the world has viewed conflict in the Middle East through a familiar lens: the price of oil, the range of missiles, and the sterile language of deterrence. But the most dangerous threshold in the current war may lie elsewhere. The infrastructure that keeps civilians alive by providing water, power, and sanitation is now a target of American airpower.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States of striking a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island, saying the attack disrupted water supplies to 30 villages. Major outlets have reported the accusation, though independent verification remains limited. Bahrain, in turn, has accused Iran of damaging a desalination plant in a drone attack, suggesting that water infrastructure may already be entering the cycle of retaliation.

For decades, the world has viewed conflict in the Middle East through a familiar lens: the price of oil, the range of missiles, and the sterile language of deterrence. But the most dangerous threshold in the current war may lie elsewhere. The infrastructure that keeps civilians alive by providing water, power, and sanitation is now a target of American airpower.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States of striking a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island, saying the attack disrupted water supplies to 30 villages. Major outlets have reported the accusation, though independent verification remains limited. Bahrain, in turn, has accused Iran of damaging a desalination plant in a drone attack, suggesting that water infrastructure may already be entering the cycle of retaliation.

The old cliche says that in the Middle East, oil is power. That may still be true for markets and states. But oil cannot hydrate a child, keep a hospital sanitary, or prevent disease when sewage systems fail. Water does that.

If water infrastructure is now considered a military target, whether deliberately or through reckless escalation, then the region is entering a far more dangerous phase of war. International humanitarian law gives special protection to drinking water installations and supplies as objects indispensable to civilian survival, meaning that striking desalination infrastructure would face an exceptionally high legal bar—one that would require it to be an extraordinarily valuable military target as well.

In practice, however, civilians do not experience a........

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