Iran’s Oil Minister has accused Israeli saboteurs of blowing up one of the country's main pipelines, a 1,200km cylinder that supplied homes and industry from the South Pars gasfield.
When two explosions hit the line last Wednesday, lighting up the night sky with columns of fire, officials said sabotage was the likely cause, without saying who might have been responsible.
But Javad Owji has now said “the explosion of the country’s gas lines was the work of Israel”, in televised remarks after a cabinet meeting.
No casualties were reported in the blasts, in Borujen in the south-western province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Safashahr in Fars province, but officials said gas supplies had been disrupted in several areas.
Iran has often blamed Israel for various industrial sabotage operations and assassinations in recent years, mainly targeting weapons programmes, nuclear research facilities and engineers linked to those projects.
Israel never comments directly on whether it is involved in such acts but has indicated it may be behind operations in Iran.
In 2014, former defence minister Benny Gantz, now part of Israel’s war cabinet for the continuing Gaza conflict, said Israel had conducted “close-range operations and long-range ones – Iran, and so on". He said these areas were not beyond the Israeli military's reach.
Tehran and Israel, meanwhile, have traded a series of drone and sabotage attacks on each others’ ships, and Israel frequently bombs targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Syria. But attacks on such critical infrastructure, carrying energy from the largest production field in the country with an estimated 18 trillion cubic feet of gas in reserves, are rare.
Alongside suspected Israeli saboteurs, or Israeli sympathisers acting as proxy agents in Iran, Tehran is also battling a number of insurgent and terrorist groups such as Kurdish separatists in the north and Baloch separatists in the south, as well as ISIS.
Types of fraud
Phishing: Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
Smishing: The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
Vishing: The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
SIM swap: Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
Identity theft: Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
Prize scams: Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
* Nada El Sawy
When is VAR used?
• Goals
• Penalty decisions
• Direct red-card incidents
• Mistaken identity
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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