Explosions struck a natural gas pipeline in Iran early on Wednesday, with an official blaming the blasts on a “sabotage and terrorist action.” The pipeline, stretching 790 miles from Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province to the Caspian Sea, experienced blasts along its route. Previous attacks on oil pipelines in Iran were attributed to Arab separatists.
The blasts hit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. Saeed Aghli, the manager of Iran’s gas network control center, told Iranian state television that a “sabotage and terrorist” action caused explosions along several areas of the line.
There are no known insurgent groups operating in that province, home to the Bakhtiari, a branch of Iran’s Lur ethnic group. Aghli did not name any suspects in the blasts.
According to Iran’s Oil Minster Javad Owji, the attack is similar to a series of mysterious and unclaimed assaults on gas pipelines in 2011. He emphasized that “the goal that the enemies were pursuing were to cut the gas in the major provinces of the country and it did not happen.” However, he mentioned that only a number of villages near the gas transmission lines were affected.
Tensions have risen in recent years as Iran faces an economy hobbled by international sanctions over its nuclear program. The country has faced years of mass demonstrations, most recently in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in custody after her arrest allegedly over how she wore her mandatory headscarf.
Iran’s nuclear program has also drawn concern from the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, who warned that Iran is “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced that the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon “in our hands.” Groups that Tehran is arming in the region — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — have launched attacks targeting Israel over the war in Gaza.
The explosions on the gas pipeline in Iran come at a critical time, with ongoing tensions in the Middle East and concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities. It remains to be seen what impact these explosions will have on both the domestic and international front.