A leading foreign policy expert has warned that the Trump administration's reported plans for a major bombing campaign against Iran's energy infrastructure could turn into a catastrophic strategic error, potentially bringing the war to the United States through cyberattacks.
Trita Parsi, president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, issued the warning Saturday after CBS News reported, citing multiple sources with knowledge of the matter, that the United States and Israel were actively planning «one of the harshest bombing campaigns to date» against Iranian energy infrastructure. The report came as federal authorities investigated whether Iran was responsible for a series of cyberattacks on water systems across several U.S. states. The New York Times reported that the attacks increasingly appeared to be the work of Iran.
In Parsi's view, the two developments may be connected. Writing in a post published online, he said that if Iran was behind the intrusions into American water systems, Tehran's message was clear. «If the U.S. strikes critical infrastructure in Iran, including desalination plants and power grids, Iran will respond in kind through cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the U.S.,» he wrote. «Essentially, Iran will bring the war to the U.S. itself using cyber.»
Parsi framed the apparent cyber campaign as a warning rather than an isolated incident. In his reading, Iran was signaling that it would treat any American attack on its most vital infrastructure as justification for comparable attacks on American infrastructure.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to destroy Iranian power plants and other critical infrastructure. The reporting also noted that such threats, if carried out, would likely be considered war crimes.
The Quincy Institute president described the reported shift toward a major strike as a profound miscalculation. «The strategic mistake of starting — and restarting — this war is only becoming more enormous,» he wrote.
Parsi warned that Americans could feel the consequences directly, not only through possible cyberattacks on water systems but also through broader attacks on power grids and other civilian infrastructure. He described the potential fallout for Americans as astronomical if the reported plans were carried out. The reported military plan, he suggested, would put U.S. critical infrastructure in the crossfire by giving Iran an incentive to retaliate in kind.
If carried out, the campaign would mark a significant escalation in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran, and the Quincy Institute president said such a step carried direct risks for the American public. The investigation into the water-system intrusions remained open, with authorities yet to publicly assign responsibility. In Parsi's assessment, the strategic cost of reopening the conflict was growing by the day.