Israel behind Iranian pipeline blasts – Tehran
Explosions that ruptured two Iranian natural gas pipelines last week were the result of an Israeli plot, the Islamic republic’s oil minister, Javad Owji, has said.
According to Iranian officials, the twin blasts occurred in the central Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, and the southern Fars province. The authorities described the incidents at the time as sabotage.
The “explosion of the gas pipeline was an Israeli plot,” Owji said on Wednesday, as quoted by the Washington Post. “The enemy intended to disturb gas service in the provinces and put people’s gas distribution at risk.”
Israel has not commented on the allegations. The Jewish state rarely acknowledges its operations abroad and has accused Iran of using Hamas and other militant Islamist groups in the region to stage attacks against it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters last month that Israel was “attacking” the Islamic republic, as well as its “proxies.”
Tehran has denied any involvement in the deadly Hamas incursion into Israel on October 7, which left some 1,200 people dead and led to Israel’s ongoing operation in Gaza. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, however, endorsed the raid into Israel as “legitimate defense of the Palestinian nation,” and promised to continue support for the Palestinian cause.
