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Burning natural gas pipeline in Iran: "We expected such acts of sabotage around the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution"

Photo: Reza Kamali Dehkordi/dpa

According to the government, Iran's largest gas pipeline network has become the target of terrorist sabotage. There were explosions in two places early on Wednesday morning at 1 a.m., Oil Minister Javad Owji told state television on Wednesday. "We expected such acts of sabotage around the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution and quickly changed the configuration of the transmission network to counteract the enemy's goal of causing gas outages in large provinces." According to the oil minister, it only occurs in villages near the damaged pipeline to outages that will be resolved later in the day.

Minister Owji referred to the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on February 11, 2011, when a similar act of sabotage took place. At that time, the gas supply temporarily failed in four regions of the country.

Local authorities also suspected sabotage as the reason, as state media reported on the current incident. The explosions occurred in the center of the country on an important south-north line. The provinces of Fars, Isfahan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari have been put on high alert.

Several Iranian media reported that as a result of the incidents in several provinces, gas supplies to companies and administrations would be interrupted on Wednesday. The national gas company contradicted this and explained that these interruptions had previously been planned for maintenance work.

Independent verification is hardly possible

In Iran there have been repeated disruptions to gas and oil pipelines in the past. The infrastructure is considered dilapidated and vulnerable, and repairs and replacements are difficult due to international sanctions against the country. Officials have repeatedly blamed saboteurs for disruptions. This is practically impossible to verify independently.

It is also not clear whether there is a connection with Iran's role in the conflicts in the region or with the parliamentary elections in the Islamic Republic planned for March 1st. After the violent death of the Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in Tehran in September 2022, there were repeated massive protests in the country, which were suppressed by the security forces.

eru/Reuters