An explosion occurred on a natural gas pipeline in Iran early Wednesday morning, with officials saying the explosion was due to “acts of sabotage and terrorism” in the country amid Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and tensions remaining high in the Middle East. He accused it of being a thing.
Details were unclear, but the explosion hit a natural gas pipeline that runs from Chahalmahal and Bakhtiari provinces in western Iran to cities along the Caspian Sea in the north. The approximately 790-mile pipeline will begin in Asaluyeh, home to Iran’s South Pars offshore gas field.
Saeed Aghly, head of Iran’s gas network control center, told Iranian state television that acts of “sabotage and terrorism” led to explosions at several locations on the railway line.
No rebels are known to operate in the province, which is home to the Bakhtiari tribe, a branch of Iran’s Ruhr tribe.
Agri did not name any suspects in the explosion.
Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owzi also compared the attack on state television to a series of mysterious and unclaimed attacks on gas pipelines in 2011, including around the anniversary of the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Tehran marked the 45th anniversary of the revolution on Sunday.
“The goal that the enemy was pursuing was to reduce gas in key states of the country, and that did not happen,” Ouge said.
“No state suffered a power outage, except for a few villages near gas transmission lines.”
In the past, Arab separatists in southwestern Iran have claimed attacks on oil pipelines. However, attacks against such infrastructure in other parts of Iran are rare.
Since the revolution, Iran has faced low-level separatist unrest among Kurds in the northwest, Baluchs in the east, and Arabs in the southwest.
But tensions have risen in recent years as Iran faces its economy being hampered by international sanctions over its nuclear program.
The country has faced large-scale demonstrations for years, most recently in 2022 over the death of Mahsa, a young woman who died in custody after being arrested over how she wore a compulsory headscarf. It was held over Amini’s death.
Meanwhile, Israel has been conducting attacks against Iran, primarily targeting its nuclear program.
On Tuesday, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Iran was in a state of turmoil, especially after the official who once led the Tehran program announced that the Islamic Republic had all the parts of the weapon “in our hands.” He warned that it was “not completely transparent” about its nuclear program. ”
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program have led to groups to which Tehran supplies arms in the region (Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels) launching attacks targeting Israel over the Gaza war. It’s happening as a result of what happened.
The Houthis continue to attack commercial shipping in the region, prompting repeated airstrikes by the United States and Britain.
