UAE Intercepts Iranian Missiles as Trump Threatens Power Plants; Hormuz Closure Risk Escalates

The war in the Middle East entered its fourth week on Sunday with a sharp escalation in threats against civilian infrastructure. Iran warned it would completely seal the Strait of Hormuz and strike energy and water systems across the Gulf if the United States followed through on President Donald Trump's threat to obliterate Iranian power plants. Trump had issued the ultimatum late Saturday, giving Iran 48 hours to fully reopen the waterway or face strikes on what he called "the biggest" power plant first.

The UAE's air defences responded to incoming Iranian aerial attacks throughout Sunday, intercepting 25 unmanned aerial vehicles and 4 ballistic missiles, according to the Ministry of Defence. The sounds of interceptions echoed across the emirates as the defence systems engaged the threats. Eight people were killed in the attacks, including two army soldiers, and 158 others were injured. Since the conflict began three weeks earlier, the UAE had intercepted a cumulative 341 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,773 drones. The scale of the defensive effort underscored the relentless pace of Iranian strikes on Gulf targets.

Iran's response to Trump's threat was defiant. The country's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said that if US and Israeli forces attacked Tehran's power plants and infrastructure, "vital infrastructure as well as energy and oil infrastructure across the entire region will be considered legitimate targets and will be irreversibly destroyed." He warned this would cause oil prices to rise "for a long time." Iran also threatened to target desalination plants—a particularly acute threat given the region's dependence on these facilities. The UAE sources over 80 percent of its drinking water through desalination, while Qatar and Bahrain depend on it entirely. Saudi Arabia sources about 50 percent of its water this way. Collectively, the six Gulf Cooperation Council states produce roughly one-third of the world's desalinated water.

The prospect of tit-for-tat strikes on civilian infrastructure deepened regional anxiety and rattled global markets as they prepared to reopen Monday morning. Saudi Arabia had already activated a contingency plan it had prepared for decades: a 1,200-kilometer pipeline built in the 1980s that runs from the country's eastern oil fields to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz entirely. The pipeline, which had waited 45 years to be deployed, became a critical lifeline as the world's largest crude exporter sought to maintain oil flows despite the effective closure of the crucial waterway.

Other Gulf states faced mounting pressure. Saudi Arabia detected three ballistic missiles headed toward Riyadh on Sunday; one was intercepted and two fell in uninhabited areas. The country's defence ministry also announced it was expelling Iran's military attaché and three other embassy officials, giving them 24 hours to leave. The Gulf Cooperation Council secretary-general strongly condemned what he called continued Iranian attacks on Gulf infrastructure, saying they violated international law and threatened regional stability and global energy supplies.

The human toll extended beyond the UAE. A helicopter crashed in Qatar's territorial waters early Sunday, killing seven people: four Qatari military personnel and three Turkish nationals, including one serviceman. The crash occurred during a routine training mission and was attributed to a technical malfunction. In Israel, rocket fire from Lebanon killed one person near the northern border. The World Health Organization warned that the escalating conflict had entered a "perilous stage," citing strikes near nuclear facilities and the risk of attacks on energy infrastructure that could cause respiratory illness from toxic smoke, damage to water supplies, and severe mental health strain across the region.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the United States might need to intensify its attacks on Iran to bring the conflict to an end, even as Trump sent mixed signals about the war's direction. A day after hinting at a possible wind-down, Trump issued his 48-hour ultimatum. When asked whether escalation and de-escalation could happen simultaneously, Bessent said: "Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate," adding that such pressure was "the only language the Iranians understand." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained noncommittal about whether Israel would join strikes on Iranian power plants, saying only that "whatever we do we do together." The conflict's ripple effects were already visible globally—Pakistan's cricket board announced that early matches of the Pakistan Super League would be played behind closed doors due to fuel shortages caused by Iran's blockade of the Hormuz Strait.