The attempt to topple the government in Tehran is pushing the Middle East into an increasingly deadly spiral of destruction
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Israeli strikes on oil storage facilities near Tehran over the weekend temporarily turned the Iranian capital into a fire-lit “hellscape,” with long-term environmental and health damage expected.
Though
Israel claimed that the targets were military, Iran said the effects
are comparable to chemical warfare on civilians. Even supporters of the
US-Israeli regime-change war expressed unease.
Fire-lit streets, black acid rain
On
the night of Saturday to Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces struck oil
infrastructure sites in and near Tehran, including at least four major
fuel reservoirs. The operation “significantly deepens the damage to the military infrastructure of the Iranian terrorist regime,” the Israeli government said.
Footage from Tehran shows massive fires with black fumes billowing.
In
some cases, fuel apparently spilled into drainage systems and later
ignited, sending long lines of flames along the streets. Eyewitnesses
described the scenes as infernal.
By morning, Tehran residents reported black-stained “acid rain” falling from the sky, leaving stains on everything it touched.
People complained of headaches, a foul taste in their mouths, breathing problems, and other symptoms of air pollution.
The strikes “amount to nothing less than intentional chemical warfare against the Iranian citizens,” Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said on X. “The consequences of this environmental and humanitarian catastrophe will not be confined within Iran’s borders.”
Tehran residents vulnerable
Large
fuel fires produce massive amounts of toxic chemicals and particulates
that pose immediate and prolonged health risks. Soot, sulfur and
nitrogen oxides, trace metals, and other harmful substances hit people
with respiratory conditions and the elderly particularly hard.
Long-term, these pollutants can cause severe conditions, including
cancer. Driven high up in the atmosphere, they can travel thousands of
miles; deposited on the ground, they pollute groundwater.
Similar man-made incidents have occurred, such as the 2003 oil
well fires set by Saddam Hussein’s forces during the US invasion, which
had lasting effects on US troops on the ground. The Tehran fires stand
out due to their proximity to a large population center with increased
risk of acute exposure.
Tehran, a city of nearly 10 million
people, lies in a semi-enclosed basin near the Alborz Mountains where
air circulation is restricted, particularly in the winter and early
spring, the Western-funded Conflict and Environmental Observatory
(CEOBS) said in its damage assessment.
”While the health impacts of long-term exposure to air pollution are relatively well established, the literature on acute exposure for similar events is limited. Even less so on the compound effects of such exposures and those from other conflict pollutants such as pulverized building materials dispersed by blasts,” the report said.
WTF, Israel?
According
to Axios sources, Washington was surprised by the scale of the Israeli
strikes. An Israeli official said the US message to Israel was “WTF?”
US President Donald Trump “wants to save the oil” and believes videos of burning tanks remind American voters of higher fuel prices, an adviser told the outlet.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading cheerleader for the regime-change operation who was “coached” by Israeli intelligence on how to convince Trump to attack Iran, urged the IDF to exercise caution.
“Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses,” he said. “The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Trump has said the potential to impose American control on Iranian oil exports factors into his administration’s calculations.
No off-ramp
Iran’s
strategy in the conflict is to raise the cost of the war for the US and
its supporters while withstanding US-Israeli attacks. Its strikes on
Gulf states hosting American bases, including targeting energy
infrastructure, and oil tankers trying to pass through the Strait of
Hormuz have caused a global energy price shock, which Trump has said is
irrelevant in the big picture.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday expressed personal
regret over the damage done to Arab nations and said Iran would stop
attacking any country that it has not been not attacked from.
Contrasting
with the defiant rhetoric of other Iranian officials, the remarks were
seen by some as an offer of an off ramp. Trump called it evidence of
Iranian weakness and doubled down on demands for unconditional
surrender.
Deadly spiral
The conflict’s potential to
become even more deadly was highlighted over the weekend by attacks on
desalination plants in Iran and Bahrain. Freshwater is scarce in the
Middle East, and desalination is a major source.
A strike on a
plant on Qeshm Island on Saturday – which Tehran blamed on the US,
calling it a dangerous precedent – reportedly left 30 Iranian villages
without freshwater. The UAE rejected Israeli media claims that it was
behind the strike. Bahrain accused Iran of targeting a desalination
facility on its soil on Sunday morning.