Iran has launched a coordinated diplomatic push on Gulf states, explicitly warning them that Tehran will hit their oil refineries, power plants and water plants if they do not persuade US President Donald Trump to end US strikes against Iran and instead focus on ending the war through negotiations, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The warning referred to attacks on energy facilities, oil fields, refineries, power grids, water infrastructure, transport networks and other strategic sites in the territory of Washington's closest Arab allies, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
The message, which is part of a wide-ranging Iranian effort to deter further US military action by raising the issue of serious economic collapses in the Persian Gulf, has been conveyed in a number of high-level diplomatic contacts, Reuters notes, based on its sources. This came after Trump threatened Iran with strikes on the country's energy grid and infrastructure in late July.
Two senior Iranian officials, two Gulf sources and a senior regional diplomat familiar with the discussions said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had spoken to his counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, as well as the Pakistani army chief, about the issue.
Araghchi urged Washington's Gulf allies to use their influence with Trump to dissuade him from renewing the strikes, the senior regional diplomat told Reuters, warning that any attack on Iran would lead to retaliation against US assets and strategic infrastructure in the Gulf.
The foreign minister has been making that message consistent in every conversation, the source said. "We are ready to retaliate, but finding a diplomatic solution is the best way to avoid wider escalation and destruction in the region," Araghchi said.
"Iran's warning was unequivocal: if America targets Iran's infrastructure, Tehran will retaliate by shelling energy facilities in the Persian Gulf and other regional sites," a Gulf source said.
The diplomatic campaign shows how Iran is seeking to turn the vulnerability of the Persian Gulf into leverage, by confronting regional governments with the prospect of a possible renewal of confrontation between the United States and Iran turning the infrastructure essential to their economies directly into a target, Reuters notes.
The warning was addressed to all Gulf countries, but was delivered mainly through Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
"Saudi Arabia believes that further escalation of hostilities will only bring greater destruction. That is why Riyadh has urged Trump to give diplomacy a chance," a Gulf diplomatic source told Reuters.