In Context: Erika Weinthal and Jeannie Sowers on the Middle East Conflict’s Impacts on Civilian Infrastructure

Mar 11, 2026 | Stimson Center
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Recent attacks on critical infrastructure in Iran and the Persian Gulf mark a troubling escalation in the widening regional conflict. Since the U.S. and Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran on February 28, Iran has responded with waves of missiles and drones targeting Gulf states across the region. Last weekend, both sides crossed a new threshold by striking civilian water and energy infrastructure. U.S. strikes allegedly hit a desalination plan on Iran’s Qeshm Island; Iran retaliated with a drone strike on a desalination plant in Bahrain; and Israeli airstrikes on fuel depots sent toxic smoke across Tehran. Taken together, the strikes underscore what experts have long warned—in a region where desalination plants are existential infrastructure and energy systems underpin daily survival, attacks on critical infrastructure can rapidly translate into a humanitarian crises in the short-term, and entrenched instability in the long-term.