Security official: Saudi attempt to detonate Iran oil facilities foiled

Yesterday, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said Tehran had successfully thwarted a foreign-backed conspiracy to set oil facilities on fire in the Gulf port city of Assaluyeh, adding that the attack was meant to be in retaliation for the attacks on the Saudi Aramco oil facilities in September.

According to Shamkhani, during the recent unrest in the country, sparked by the government’s decision to increase gas prices, some rioters tried to attack the oil pipeline facilities at Assaluyeh in the south of Iran.

“The attack on Assaluyeh had been planned by the enemy,” he said. The top Iranian security official added, “the enemy appeared to be seeking to avenge what Yemen Ansarullah [Houthis] did in attacking Saudi facilities, but it failed.”

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Iranian spokesman Ali Rabiee had previously disclosed reports of hostile plots to stage coordinated attacks on the oil pipelines, telecommunication centres in Shiraz, and a number of military bases.

The price reform, required by Iranian legislature and essential as US-imposed sanctions seek to deplete Iran’s budgetary resources through what it calls “maximum pressure”, had been long delayed due to concerns regarding the move’s probable backlash.

The government also announced a number of aid and subsidiary programs to protect vulnerable households from the adverse effects of the measure.

Whilst acknowledging the peaceful protests as a “natural” reaction to the price hikes, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Ali Fadavi explained: “Attacking homes, shops, hospitals, banks and gas stations is a malicious act which is not an act of protest nor rioting, but an act of thievery.” Adding: “This is the difference between protest and disorder.”

READ: Arson attacks are the latest escalation in America’s shadowy war against Iran