Iran’s Precision Strikes Turn Gulf Infrastructure Into Economic Leverage

Iran has countered America’s military superiority by disabling essential links in Gulf infrastructure, creating prolonged interruptions to energy exports, industrial production, and public services.

The campaign has compounded Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by striking facilities that allow Gulf producers to bypass the waterway.

It has also increased economic pressure on Washington in negotiations.

Reuters identified at least 135 drone and missile attacks on 84 infrastructure sites across seven Gulf countries since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28.

Some were carried out by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq.

Critical Equipment, Wider Consequences

The investigation points to a recurring pattern: strikes on equipment whose loss can interrupt operations across a much larger facility.

At Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex, Iranian attacks destroyed two units containing equipment used to liquefy natural gas.

QatarEnergy chief Saad al-Kaabi estimated in March that full repairs would take three to five years.

The strikes threatened nearly 20% of global LNG flows, illustrating how damage concentrated within a single complex could affect supplies far beyond the region.

At the Al Taweelah aluminum smelter in Abu Dhabi, an attack on its power supply stopped all 1,262 smelting cells.

Only a quarter had resumed operation by late August, and normal production is not expected until 2027.

Ryan Stevens, a former U.S. Marine Corps special operations airstrike coordinator who reviewed the findings, said the attacks demonstrated “precision, targeting expertise, and patience.”

Export Alternatives Under Attack

Fujairah, the UAE port outside Hormuz, was struck at least 19 times.

Repeated attacks damaged systems connecting storage terminals with shipping berths, constraining an important alternative route for oil exports.

After strikes damaged both of the port’s main transfer systems in March, weekly oil loadings fell to 440,000 barrels a day, less than half the 2025 daily average.

A further attack in May effectively halted refined petroleum exports for a month. Those shipments did not recover until September.

The disruption was substantial but uneven. Repairs allowed Fujairah to register record weekly exports at the end of March, while total shipments reached a monthly record in September.

Saudi Arabia’s alternative route also came under pressure.

A September 10 attack damaged three pumping stations and halted crude flows through the East-West Pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea, threatening supplies equivalent to as much as 4% of global oil consumption.

Three days earlier, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf had described the vulnerability directly: “It’s simple: the oil and gas production chain here is sprawling, accessible, and exposed.”

Damage Beyond Oil and Gas

The campaign extended to airports, data centers, electricity generation and drinking-water infrastructure.

Reuters found that at least four of Kuwait’s eight combined power and desalination plants were hit between March and July.

The country obtains 90% of its drinking water from desalination, making interruptions to those facilities particularly consequential.

Amazon infrastructure in Bahrain remained out of service six months after an attack because damaged equipment could not be repaired.

Airports across the region were repeatedly struck, sometimes shortly after reopening following earlier damage.

An attack at the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant forced one reactor to switch to emergency diesel generators.

The operator said safety systems worked as intended, with no injuries or radioactive releases.

Disputed Accounts of the Damage

Gulf governments frequently attributed damage to debris from intercepted weapons.

Reuters identified at least 34 official statements using that explanation.

However, 14 industry and security specialists who reviewed the investigation’s evidence considered it highly unlikely that falling debris was the principal cause of damage to essential equipment across dozens of sites.

Reuters based its findings on interviews with 36 people, satellite imagery, verified photographs and videos, and official statements.

It could not establish the complete damage at every location or consistently determine how effectively air defenses performed.

U.S. Central Command said American forces had intercepted thousands of drones and missiles alongside regional partners.

It also condemned Iran’s attacks on neighboring countries and commercial shipping.