The New York TimesThe New York Times

Cloud Wars: Mideast Rivalries Rise Along a New Front

By Alissa J. Rubin

28 Aug 2022 · 6 min read

Editor's Note

Here’s a great NYT story we didn’t see coming: The United Arab Emirates is injecting chemicals into clouds in order to make it rain. Other countries are joining in to make sure they’re not left dry.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian officials have worried for years that other nations have been depriving them of one of their vital water sources. But it was not an upstream dam that they were worrying about or an aquifer being bled dry.

In 2018, amid a searing drought and rising temperatures, some senior officials concluded that someone was stealing their water from the clouds.

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