Donald Trump 'targets Iran water supplies' in new and desperate bid for end to war

Donald Trump 'targets Iran water supplies' in new and desperate bid for end to war Attacks on Iran's water supplies has prompted "war crime" claims , even though Tehran has repeatedly done the same on Gulf States as the war gets even more dirty and underhand Trying to settle on a Memorandum of Understanding to end the US-Iran war has first been complicated by the Hezbollah threat to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want that conflict included in a settlement and Tehran is insisting that it must be to protect its Hezbollah proxy. But add Iran’s shooting down of a £60million US Apache helicopter and the massive US strikes on Iran that followed yesterday and overnight, and even temporary peace looks remote. As many as 49 Tomahawk missiles - at a costly £147m altogether - were fired from the vast US armada in the Gulf, crucially targeting communications and radar facilities. But there is a twist, amid claims that in the latest strike exchanges the US also targeted two water reservoirs, signalling a possible fresh and worrying twist in the American war plans. Iranian news outlets report that two concrete water storage reservoirs in the Bamani district of Sirik in Hormozgan were hit by the US attack. This will have a dramatic effect on tens of thousands of civilians living in the area in a country already suffering dramatic water shortages due to drought and agricultural use. If these were deliberate strikes then, putting aside for now the war-crime accusations- they will have two purposes - one as a warning and the other to put pressure on Tehran. The first could be to warn Tehran against its repeated attempts to hit water desalination sites in the region, particularly one in Kuwait in early April. And there is tremendous leverage to be gained by hitting the very thing that Tehran is desperately short of - drinkable water, putting pressure on Iran to settle a deal. The US is searching for new depths in its attempt to bomb its way into striking a deal with Iran and although other excesses may have been accidental it is not the first time. Nothing has been said for weeks on the bombing of the Iranian school in the opening attacks of the war, killing 150, mostly schoolchildren. It seems no amount of pressure on Tehran is making it give up, despite repeated air strikes and it has retained the ability to fire medium range missiles and drones. So in the coming days we may see more water installations targeted, making it increasingly impossible for the US to deny. The new targeting of water facilities, if they were deliberate, goes outside the rules of war and definitely humanitarian law governing civilian installations. Hitting a water supply is a desperate measure and if it turns out to be deliberate it could constitute a crime. Humanitarian law designed to protect civilian objects says water installations must not be targeted. Under international humanitarian law (IHL), desalination plants are considered civilian objects and, more specifically, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. As such, they benefit from heightened protection and must not be targeted. The law says: “'All feasible precautions must be taken to avoid, and in any event to minimise, harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects.” According to the International Committee of the Red Cross water providing sites have special protection under the law. It says: “In essence, water is a civilian object and, as such, protected by humanitarian law. But in addition, water is indispensable for the survival of the civilian population. “Hence, it has been granted special protection, including water sanitation and distribution installations. Attacks against civilian objects and, in particular, against objects that are indispensable for the survival of the civilian population are war crimes.” But as we have seen repeatedly with Donald Trump, the law is merely something to chicane around and dodge. And he’s becoming increasingly desperate.