The Western region of Tehran recently witnessed a power outage due to a string of explosions. These explosions took place at various places, namely a blast in a medical clinic, another one causing floods in an important area of shipping hubs, and a missile-production facility was targeted as well. Initially, Tehran had labelled these chain of explosions as a series of accidents. There links to each other seem highly likely due to the misfortunate events taking place in the vicinities of industrial, nuclear and military locations.
However, the blast on Natanz nuclear research on July 2, 2020, in Isfahan, Iran led to Iran admitting that they were being targeted and all these acts were indeed the part of a big sabotage plan by its enemies. With Iran being vocal about being targeted, other explosions have also fallen into suspicious activity and part of a bigger conspiracy. Now the main challenge for Iran is finding out the entity behind these attacks, as well as their response.
According to the senior adviser on science and nonproliferation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Olli Heinonen, the sole incident of Natanz nuclear research is enough for Iran to understand the involvement of foul-play. He also clarified that an attack of this level could only be possible with the attackers having complete details on the workshop designs and operations at Natanz, he clearly stated that Iran's nuclear and missile programs and their operations are not secretive and are likely exposed. He also stated that this was act was just a small warning and things could only escalate in the near future.
In another event where the explosion shook up a missile facility of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a mass power outage resulted in the West of Tehran. This was followed by another explosion in a factory in Southern Tehran, on July 7. All these events have resulted in damaging Iran's nuclear aims.
Due to economic sanctions on Iran by the Trump U.S government, the 2015 nuclear deal had already been under fire, with Iran not ready to negotiate and building its own defensive missile capability at the IRGC. This Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action includes Iran and six other powerful countries.
According to Ali Alfoneh, a senior at the Arab Gulf States Institue in Washington, Israel could be the big name behind all these attacks. But it is not confirmed if it really had any part to play, or a complete part, or none at all. It is under suspicion due to previous cyberattacks on Iran. On the other hand, Iran has also been facing domestic internal tension, by the minority Baluch people. Yet, the bigger picture remains unclear.
Infographic via ArabNews
