Israel was behind last week's attack on Iranian gas pipelines, Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Wednesday according to semi-official Tasnim news agency.
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Owji had previously referred to the blasts that struck two major natural gas pipelines in Iran early last Wednesday as "sabotage and terrorist attacks” and stopped short of publicly blaming Israel or any other culprit. But he said that the goal of the attack was to damage Iran's energy infrastructure and stir domestic discontent.
“The enemy's plan was to completely disrupt the flow of gas in winter to several main cities and provinces in our country," he told Iranian media last Friday.
The blasts hit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometer (790-mile) pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field.
In December, a hacking group that Iran accuses of having links to Israel claimed it carried out a cyber-attack that disrupted as much as 70% of Iran's gas stations.