The other issue these gulf states have is potable water. The majority of it is generated at a few desalination plants. The Iranians have already demonstrated their ability to reliably hit infrastructure all over the region. They can up the ante and create absolute chaos in the region. Even if the US-Israeli strikes cripple Iran's infrastructure, Iran is in a stronger negotiating position. I'm appalled at the EU response to this unprovoked attack. They seem to think that appeasing a bully like trump is going to benefit the EU. Trump started this conflict in order to distract us from his other crimes. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
658 points (98.1% liked)
World News
54624 readers
3030 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It's fine, I'm sure all the instafluencer porta-potties can just order Amazon!
Let them eat Uber.
Oh, anyway
How many days of "fresh food" can someone possibly have left?
Zucchini in the fridge will last for more than a week easy. Eggs last a month or longer. Onions don’t even need a fridge and last months.
Dubai had no problem using slaves to build the Burj Khalifa. Maybe they should have their slaves bring some food for their masters?
I propose the slaves eat their masters
Perhaps a few cocktails as well
be dubai
build city in the middle of the desert
literally nothing grows here
we import all our stuff
trade blockade
gonna starve
mfw
Also how did people historically live there? Before desalination plants
Most of the Arab peninsula was inhabited by nomadic tribes that continuously moved with their cattle and tents, with the exception of a few scattered cities that thrived on trade and light agriculture (dates).
In XVIII they lived from fishery and hunting clams. In XX they lived from port and trade. In second half of XX they lived from petroleum. Now they live from youtubers who are testing rooms and food there.
It should also be mentioned that considerably fewer people lived there back then.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Obviously far fewer people lived there. They probably got their fresh water from a wadi or an oasis.
They're not going to starve because they have a reserve of canned and frozen foods (as it says in the article), but they won't get fresh food for a while. And, if you live in a modern city, you also import all your food, often from across an ocean.
The problem we're seeing a lot in the modern world is that everything has been ultra optimized. Lots of just-in-time delivery, as little warehousing as possible. Products are bought for the lowest possible cost, even if that means they're shipped from the other side of the planet. When it works, that's fine. But, when there's a disruption it's deadly. I remember at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the price of bread in Egypt skyrocketed since all the grain they used came from Ukraine.
UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. are in a bad geographic situation. They have ports on the sea but to get anything into their countries it has to pass by the Strait of Hormuz. Iran can mess with that traffic any time it wants, and Iran isn't exactly friendly with those countries, or particularly stable. I wonder if those countries have backup plans to ship things in via say Oman.
All the Andrew Tate bro types are going to FAFO.
REAL MEN DON'T STARVE!
Then they shouldn’t allow US bases that get them embroiled in unprovoked conflicts.
Maybe one of those vanity projects could have been a greenhouse or something, but I guess it's too late for that.
load more comments
(6 replies)
There are roads between the eastern side of the strait and Dubai and there is a cool technology called “trucks” that can be used to transport produce. Yes, it’s more expensive than boats but I read somewhere that Dubai is very rich.
If your infrastructure is all geared around getting everything in by port, it might not be possible to switch to getting it all in by truck.
There might not be enough trucks, or enough truck drivers. If they can get enough trucks and drivers, the roads may not be able to support that much traffic. And, that's assuming they even have enough ports, and the right kinds of ports to unload any ships that come in on that side.
No, surely they just didn't think of it.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Trust me. They know about trucks. From 8 in the evening to 6 in the morning it’s miles and miles and miles of trucks going from the north to south
load more comments
(4 replies)
UAE Does not have/grow any Local Food????
or is that for all Middle east countries.
It is literally in the last paragraph of the write-up.
UAE imports 90% of its food while overall the gulf countries import 70% of their food.
Not much of a surprise, they are not known for their swathes of farm land.
Okay thank you.
I should read more next time.
i hope nobody starves but fuck Dubai
Oh don't worry. The modern day slaves - the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Filipino workers will absolutely suffer.
They should honestly try to go home by any means necessary at this point, even if it means deportation (since a lot of predatory contracts confiscate their passports).
Now would be a great time for these overworked and underpaid masses to do the funny thing to the besieged city of millionaires.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Oh NO! RICH people live in Dubai!
-The Media!
there’s also many slaves who live in dubai
i sure wonder who, of the two, will be denied food
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
The UAE is not about to starve. It maintains strategic grain reserves and holds significant stocks of frozen and packaged foods, meaning the country is not facing a broader food shortage.
load more comments
(15 replies)
view more: next ›