00:00When the U.S. and Israel struck oil depots in Iran over the weekend, the images were cataclysmic.
00:06But experts say an attack on another type of facility could prove more catastrophic,
00:11with a dire human toll. On Saturday, Iran's foreign minister accused the U.S. of striking
00:16a desalination plant in Iran that supplied water to 30 villages, calling it a dangerous move with
00:22grave consequences. A spokesperson for the American military denied that the U.S. had
00:27targeted the plant on Keshem Island, just off Iran's southern coast. Meanwhile, the Bahrain
00:33government said an Iranian drone had struck a desalination plant there. The interior ministry
00:38released a photo of firefighters putting out the flames, saying the attack had caused material
00:43damage. On Monday, Bahrain's king denounced what he called unjustified Iranian attacks against his
00:50country, a U.S. ally. We deeply regret the unprecedented attacks that our beloved country,
00:56as well as our Arab brotherly states, have been subjected to. Attacks that cannot be justified
01:02under any pretext by Iran. Desalination plants transform seawater into drinking water. Iran is
01:09less dependent on desalinated water, but has faced severe water shortages in recent years. Other Gulf states
01:16are vulnerable. Desalinated water provides 42 percent of the drinking water in the UAE, 86 percent in Oman,
01:2390 percent in Kuwait, and 70 percent in Saudi Arabia. In fact, a diplomatic cable released
01:30by WikiLeaks from 2008 revealed that a single desalination plant provided the Saudi capital
01:36of Riyadh with more than 90 percent of its drinking water at the time. Experts say targeting desalination
01:42plants marks a grave escalation, given they're a lifeline to some 100 million people across the Gulf
01:49region.
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