Israel behind attacks on Iranian gas pipelines

The New York Times reported on Friday (February 16) that Israel is behind the attacks that targeted two main Iranian gas pipelines earlier this week.

According to the report, the allegedly Israeli attacks have 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 attack was 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.

“This terrorist act of sabotage occurred at 1 a.m. (9.30 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday in the network of national gas transmission pipelines in two regions of the country,” he added.

Earlier this week, Iranian authorities denied reports that the alleged Israeli attack caused gas cuts to industries and offices in some provinces.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement: “The United States doesn't seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”

Last month, an alleged Israeli missile strike on Syria’s capital Damascus killed five members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, including the head of the force’s information unit in Syria, a security source in the regional pro-Syria alliance told Reuters.

In a statement carried on Iranian state television, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed that four of its military advisers were killed in the strike and said further details would be announced later. State TV said the targeted building was the residence of Iranian advisers in Damascus.

Earlier last month, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked an Israeli “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

“In response to the recent atrocities of the Zionist regime, causing the killing of commanders of the [Revolutionary] Guards and the Axis of Resistance … one of the main Mossad espionage headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan region was destroyed with ballistic missiles,” the Guards said in a statement.