The story goes back years. In 2011 and 2012, then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly accused Western powers of using “special equipment” to divert clouds and cause droughts in Iran. He repeated it while inaugurating a dam in Arak. The West laughed, scientific media branded it a wild conspiracy theory and the topic was shelved.

But the narrative persisted. In 2018, General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Civil Defense, pointed directly at Israel and another regional country for “cloud theft and snow theft.” And just last year, Mohsen Arbabian, an executive at Iran’s water resources company, insisted again with satellite images. According to him, it has been going on for 40 years.

Meanwhile, the water collapse was real. In November 2025, the Amir Kabir Dam, one of the five main dams supplying Tehran, was disconnected from the grid after falling to one percent of capacity. Iranian authorities openly spoke of a “Day Zero” for the capital, Cape Town style.

Then the war came. Since late February, Iranian missiles have hit multiple US military bases across the Middle East. According to defense analysts, at least 17 American installations in the region have suffered direct impacts during the conflict, some severely damaged.