Iran’s main gas pipeline hit by sabotage, oil minister says

Two explosions along Iran’s main south-north gas pipeline network were caused by “terrorist acts of sabotage”, Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Wednesday.
Owji told state TV, “This terrorist act of sabotage occurred at 1 a.m. (9.30 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday morning in the network of national gas transmission pipelines in two regions of the country.”
He added, “We anticipated such acts of sabotage around the anniversary of the Iranian revolution (Feb 11) and quickly changed the configuration of the transmission network to counter the enemy’s objective to cause gas outages in major provinces.”
According to the oil minister, only villages near the damaged pipeline are experiencing gas outages, which will be fixed later today.
The dispatching director of the National Iranian Gas Company denied earlier reports that the incident caused gas cuts to industries and offices in some provinces, explaining that these temporary restrictions were planned ahead for maintenance.