Baghdad has announced that Iranian gas supplies to its power plants have been disrupted, while Havana points to a US blockade as the cause of the island’s power outages
Both Iraq and Cuba have been hit by countrywide blackouts. The Middle Eastern nation’s power grid failed after a sharp decline in gas deliveries to a key power plant in Basra, while the Caribbean island’s outage is attributed to long-standing fuel shortages worsened by the US blockade on Venezuelan oil.
A day prior to Iraq’s blackout, an Electricity Ministry spokesperson was cited as stating that “incomplete supplies” of gas from neighboring Iran were already impacting power plant operations. Iran has been under a large-scale US-Israeli air campaign since Saturday.
Another power facility in central Salah al-Din province also shut down, with local police clearly rejecting reports that the station was targeted in an attack, according to the state-run INA news agency.
Iraq depends on Iranian gas for 30-40% of its electricity generation. This reliance is a direct result of decades of foreign intervention in the country. Before the 1991 Gulf War, the grid—though strained by sanctions—largely met demand. The war destroyed 75% of its generating capacity, and the 2003 US-led invasion caused a catastrophic collapse, leaving output at less than 10% of its previous level.
Cuba also faced blackouts on Wednesday, as a widespread power failure plunged roughly two-thirds of the island into darkness, including the capital Havana.
The blackout was triggered by a shutdown at one of the island’s largest thermoelectric power plants, per the Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The island nation’s chronic fuel shortages have been significantly worsened by a US blockade on Venezuelan oil. Since US forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Washington has seized multiple tankers bound for Cuba.
The Cuban government has long blamed its economic crisis on decades of US sanctions, which it says directly contribute to the lack of investment in power generation and its crumbling electric grid.
Against this backdrop, US President Donald Trump suggested last week that the US could carry out a “friendly takeover of Cuba,” claiming the island nation’s government is on the brink of collapse and is actively negotiating with Washington.