On Friday, Iran managed a major strike on the Gulf nation of Kuwait, launching a missile and drone attack on a major Kuwaiti desalination plant. Some Kuwaiti military personnel were injured in the attack, which could potentially put a big dent in Kuwait's fresh water supply.
Iranian missile and drone attacks struck a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait Friday, damaging a key source of drinking water in the tiny desert nation.
Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water, and Renewable Energy confirmed the strike had started a fire and damaged several power generation units. The ministry added that the fire had been contained and repairs to the damaged equipment were underway.
Most of the desert states around the Persian Gulf get almost all of their potable water from plants like this:
About 90% of Kuwait’s drinking water comes from desalination, in which salt is removed from seawater — typically by pushing it through ultrafine membranes in a process known as reverse osmosis.
Approximately 86% of nearby Oman’s potable water and 70% of Saudi Arabia’s drinking water comes from the same process.
The Iranian leadership, or what's left of it, may be crazy, but they aren't stupid. The Gulf states' dependence on desalination plants for water makes them a major strategic target.
A 2010 CIA analysis warned attacks on desalination facilities could trigger national crises in several Gulf states, and prolonged outages could last months if critical equipment were destroyed.
More than 90% of the Gulf’s desalinated water comes from just 56 plants, the report stated, and “each of these critical plants is extremely vulnerable to sabotage or military action.”
Meanwhile, Kuwait’s army confirmed that Iranian drone attacks had injured an unspecified number of military personnel.
Iran, on the other hand, only gets about three percent of its potable water from desalination.
Read More: New: Iran Now Calling on Houthis to Block Red Sea Gateway
What's a trifle baffling about, and has been since the beginning of hostilities back in February, is Iran's willingness to launch attacks on its neighbors. The attacks on Saudi Arabia in particular are a head-scratcher, as Saudi Arabia has the largest military of any of the Arab Gulf states. The Saudis' army is only roughly half the size of Iran's, but the Iranians have been taking a pounding from American and Israeli forces since February; they aren't in the best shape. And, this has been primarily an air war, and the Saudis have an air force of close to a thousand modern aircraft.
Iran's actions here don't seem to make much sense, unless we presume that what's left of their leadership, or at least their military leadership, has decided to go down swinging. There have been indications that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has effectively taken control of what's left of Iran's military, and while they have been taking a beating the likes of which the United States military hasn't dealt out in some time, they clearly still have a few missiles and drones hidden away.
So far, there has been no military response from Kuwait. Historically, though, there has been little love lost between the Gulf Arab states and Persian Iran. This is something that the ever-less-rational Iran may want to think twice about.
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/07/17/iran-attacks-kuwait-water-plant-major-blow-to-desert-nations-supply-n2204433
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