The blasts that hit 2 natural gas pipelines in Iran were condemned by an Iranian official as acts of sabotage
According to the sources who spoke to the NYT, the alleged Israeli attacks disrupted the flow of heat and cooking gas to several Iranian provinces. Energy experts added that the attacks knocked out about 15 percent of Iran’s natural daily gas production
One Western official who spoke to the NYT said that the attacks were symbolic and easy for Iran to repair.
Iran’s oil minister, Javad Owji, told Iranian media on Friday that the attacks’ objective was to disrupt the flow of gas in winter to main Iranian cities and provinces.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that two explosions along Iran’s main south-north gas pipeline network were caused by sabotage, according to the Iranian oil minister who did not name any suspects.
Authorities also denied reports that the incident caused gas cuts to industries and offices in some provinces, state media reported.
“This terrorist act of sabotage occurred at 1 a.m. (9.30 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday morning in the network of national gas transmission pipelines in two regions of the country,” Minister Javad Owji said.
Only villages near the damaged pipeline were experiencing gas outages, which will be fixed later today, Owji said. Temporary restrictions had been planned ahead for maintenance, state media reported.
Owji pointed to a similar incident that took place in 2011, which he said was an act of sabotage that caused temporary gas outages in four different regions in the country.
In December, Iran executed five people whom it accused of being saboteurs with links to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service in a decades-long shadow war that has seen Tehran accuse Israel of attacks on its nuclear and missile efforts, charges the latter has never confirmed or denied.
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