2026-04-01T08:00:54.858Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：凯莉·阿特伍德、詹妮弗·汉斯勒
发布于2026年4月1日，美国东部时间凌晨4:00
曼德尔·恩根/法新社/盖蒂图片社
据四名地区消息人士透露，在周一特朗普总统提出可能扩大伊朗战场、袭击伊朗水处理厂的选项后，一些海湾国家已再次向特朗普政府严肃表达担忧，反对任何针对民用基础设施的打击行动，并警告此类行动可能引发针锋相对的冲突升级。
包括水厂在内的民用基础设施显然是国际法禁止的打击目标，但在美以发动的这场战争期间，伊朗已对海湾地区的美国盟友展开报复行动。这些国家大多因淡水水源匮乏，严重依赖海水淡化来为民众提供饮用水。如果伊朗对美国袭击水厂的行为作出回应，袭击邻国的同类设施，可能引发灾难性后果。
“如果他们发动袭击，将是一场巨大的灾难，我们几乎所有的饮用水都依赖海水淡化，”一名地区官员表示，他补充道，此前已就打击此类目标的风险向特朗普政府官员明确表达过担忧，并在特朗普周一在真相社交平台发帖后再次重申了这一顾虑。
尽管已有多个国家私下向特朗普政府发出警告，反对发动此类袭击，但迄今为止它们都避免公开谴责这位美国总统。
袭击关键民用基础设施——包括水厂以及特朗普威胁过的发电厂——可能被认定为战争罪。《日内瓦公约》及其附加议定书将对平民生存不可或缺的目标定义为非法军事目标，并明确将“饮用水设施、供水系统和灌溉工程”纳入此类范畴。
“海水淡化厂纯粹属于民用基础设施，攻击它们没有任何法律依据，”前人权观察执行主任肯尼思·罗斯说道，他还补充道，那些为特朗普提供建议的人“有责任不执行任何非法命令”。
伊朗的饮用水只有极小一部分来自海水淡化厂。但包括卡塔尔和巴林在内的周边国家，超过一半的饮用水都通过该技术生产——即通过脱盐将海水转化为可饮用水。
呼吁美国避免实施可能构成战争罪、加剧冲突的行动的私下呼声，并不代表该地区所有国家的立场。
一名资深海湾外交官表示，一些国家没有余力反对伊朗可能发动的打击，因为它们已将全部精力投入到抵御当前的伊朗袭击中。
此外，目前仍在密集开展斡旋美伊谈判的工作，另一名地区消息人士指出，私下谴责本届政府可能会破坏调解者的努力。
专家警告称，美国盟友不愿谴责特朗普的任何非法威胁，这是一种危险的做法。
“在违法行为面前保持沉默，指望通过其他努力就能平息事态，这实在太过天真，”罗斯说道，“如果没有强烈的反对声音，特朗普会得寸进尺。”
美国参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩周二在被问及可能袭击海水淡化厂的问题时回应称，美军始终“依照正常程序打击合法目标”。白宫新闻秘书卡洛琳·莱维特也表示，本届政府将遵守法律。
“本届政府、美国武装力量当然会始终在法律框架内行事，但关于实现作战的全部目标，我们将毫不松懈地推进，同时他也要求伊朗政权与本届政府达成协议，”莱维特周一说道。
丹·巴利蒂/美联社/资料图
就在特朗普在真相社交平台发帖威胁可能袭击海水淡化厂的几天前，七国集团外长签署联合声明，呼吁立即停止针对平民和民用基础设施的袭击。美国国务卿马可·鲁比奥代表美国签署了该声明。
尽管特朗普威胁袭击水资源的潜在非法行为是首次出现，但他在这场战争期间已发出过其他类似威胁。最近几周，特朗普曾威胁称，如果伊朗不与美国达成外交协议，就“打击并摧毁”伊朗的发电厂，法律专家表示此举同样违反国际法。当时海湾盟友也曾通过私人渠道向特朗普政府官员表达过担忧，该威胁同样发布在社交媒体上。
袭击伊朗海水淡化厂也不太可能为这场冲突争取到更多盟友支持，而特朗普曾多次表示他不需要盟友支持，同时还斥责盟友没有提供足够帮助。
“如果你威胁去做一件可能或已经构成战争罪的事情，会让盟友感到恐惧，因为盟友都不想卷入可能构成战争罪的行动中，”战略与国际研究中心人权倡议部主任安德鲁·弗里德曼说道。
据科威特电力与水利部发布的消息，本周早些时候，一名印度工人在伊朗袭击科威特一处电力和海水淡化厂的行动中身亡。但目前战争尚未升级到双方将水资源作为主要打击目标的程度。
尽管如此，伊朗已展现出会对本国基础设施遭袭进行报复的决心。该组织已在整个地区发动多起针对能源资源的袭击。
双方是否会升级冲突，将水资源作为核心打击目标，仍是未知数。
3月初，伊朗指责美国袭击了格什姆岛的一座淡水海水淡化厂，并警告将予以报复。
“袭击伊朗基础设施是危险之举，将带来严重后果，”伊朗外交部长阿巴斯·阿拉格希当时警告称，“是美国开了这个先例，而非伊朗。”
“美以犹太复国主义联盟袭击格什姆岛海水淡化厂的罪行，是借助南部邻国的美军基地实施的。这种侵略行为将遭到相称的回应，”伊朗议会议长穆罕默德-巴盖尔·加利巴夫当时说道。
一名美国国防官员告诉CNN，这并非美军发动的袭击。但该海水淡化厂的现状以及所谓破坏事件的起因仍不明朗。
Trump’s threats of targeting water plants in Iran, a potential war crime, alarm Gulf allies
2026-04-01T08:00:54.858Z / CNN
By Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler
PUBLISHED Apr 1, 2026, 4:00 AM ET
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on March 29, 2026.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
After President Donald Trump floated on Monday the possibility of expanding the Iran war by potentially striking water treatment plants in Iran, some Gulf countries reiterated grave concerns to the Trump administration about any strikes on civilian infrastructure and the risk of an intensifying tit-for-tat escalation, according to four regional sources.
Civilian infrastructure sites like water plants are clearly banned as targets by international law, but throughout the war following US and Israeli strikes, Iran has retaliated against US allies in the Gulf region, many of whom rely heavily on desalination to provide water for citizens due to few fresh water sources. If Iran responded to a US strike on a water plant by hitting a similar facility in a nearby country, it could trigger devastating consequences.
“It will be a huge catastrophe if they strike, we rely on desalination for almost all drinking water,” said one regional official, explaining that the concerns about pursuing these strikes have been clearly articulated to Trump administration officials in the past and were reiterated after Trump’s Truth Social post on Monday.
While several countries have privately reached out to the Trump administration to warn against such attacks, they’ve so far avoided publicly rebuking the US president.
Targeting critical civilian infrastructure, which includes water plants and potentially power plants that have also been the subject of Trump threats, could be considered a war crime. The Geneva Conventions and its protocols define objects indispensable to the survival of a civilian population as illegal military targets, and clearly cites “drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation work” as falling into that category.
“Desalination plants are purely civilian infrastructure. There is no legal argument whatsoever for attacking them,” said Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, adding that those advising Trump have “a responsibility not to implement any illegal order.”
Iran gets only a small fraction of its water from desalination plants. But nearby countries including Qatar and Bahrain produce more than half of their drinking water using the technology, which converts seawater into potable water by removing the salt.
The private chorus of voices encouraging the US to steer clear of committing potential war crimes that could escalate the conflict does not include every player in the region.
Some nations don’t have the bandwidth to fight against potential strikes from Iran because they are entirely consumed by defending against the current Iranian attacks, said a senior Gulf diplomat.
There are also intense ongoing efforts to broker US-Iran negotiations, and a separate regional source said that scolding the administration privately could undermine the facilitators’ efforts.
Experts warned that US allies’ hesitancy to condemn any illegal threats by the Trump was a dangerous approach.
“Being quiet in the face of lawlessness, hoping that somehow you’ll mitigate it through other efforts is just naive,” Roth said. “Trump will take anything he can get if there’s not an outpouring of opposition to it.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine responded to questions about the potential targeting of desalination plants on Tuesday by saying that the US military always “strikes lawful targets in accordance with normal procedures.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also said that the administration will follow the law.
“Of course this administration, the United States Armed Forces, will always act within the confines of the law, but with respect to achieving the full objectives of operations going to move forward unabated, and he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration,” Leavitt said on Monday.
A desalination plant operates in Rishon LeZion, Israel, in 2014.
Dan Balilty/AP/File
Just days before Trump’s Truth Social post threatening the possible targeting of desalination plants, the G7 foreign ministers signed onto a joint statement calling for the immediate end to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed that statement on behalf of the US.
While the threat of potentially illegal strikes coming from Trump related to water resources is a new one, he has made other similar threats throughout the course of this war. In recent weeks Trump threatened to “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants, which legal experts say would also violate international law, if Iran did not reach a diplomatic agreement with the US. Gulf allies similarly raised concerns with Trump administration officials through private channels at the time of that threat, which was also posted on social media.
Striking Iranian desalination plants is also unlikely to attract more allied support in this conflict, something Trump had repeatedly said he does not need but has chastised allies for not providing.
“If you threaten to do something that either could be or is a war crime, it frightens allies, because allies don’t want to be a part of something that could be a war crime,” said Andrew Friedman, a director at the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Earlier this week, an Indian worker was killed in an Iranian attack on a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait, according to a post from the country’s Ministry of Electricity and Water. But the war has not escalated to the point where water resources have been widely targeted.
Still, Iran has already shown it will retaliate for attacks on its infrastructure. It has carried out many attacks on energy resources throughout the region.
Whether or not strikes escalate to the point that water becomes a central target for either side remains an open question.
In early March, Iran accused the US of attacking a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island, and Iranian officials warned of retaliation.
“Attacking Iran’s infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned at the time. “The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.”
“The crime committed by US-Zionist alliance in targeting the desalination plant on Qeshm Island was carried out with support of a US base in a neighboring country in south. This aggression will met a proportionate response,” Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said at the time.
A US defense official told CNN that it was not a US strike. But the state of the desalination plant and what caused the alleged disruption remains unclear.
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