Israeli forces named in attack on Iran

U.S. and Israeli criminal military actions in the Middle East hit a new low with the attacks on two major gas pipelines in Iran. The detonations occurred simultaneously in two different regions of the country in the early morning of Feb. 14. 

One explosion hit the mainline gas route that runs from Iran’s central provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, while the other hit in the southern Fars province. 

Strong evidence suggests that the Israeli state carried out the attack. Even the historically pro-imperialist and pro-Zionist New York Times published an article Feb. 16, entitled, “Israel Was Behind Attacks on Major Gas Pipelines in Iran, Officials Say.”

The Feb. 16 article reports: “Israel carried out covert attacks on two major natural gas pipelines inside Iran this week, disrupting the flow of heat and cooking gas to provinces with millions of people, according to two Western officials and a military strategist affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.” The same piece highlights how energy experts believe the attacks knocked out an estimated “15% of Iran’s natural daily gas production.”

The article continues: “Israel has long targeted military and nuclear sites inside Iran — and assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists and commanders, both inside and outside of the country. Israel has also waged cyberattacks to disable servers belonging to the oil ministry, causing turmoil at gas stations nationwide.”

The corporate media had refused earlier to acknowledge the possibility of U.S. or Israeli involvement in the attack. Just a few years ago, such a critique of Israeli actions seemed unimaginable in any U.S. bourgeois publication. The Times article still downplays U.S. complicity.

U.S., Israel commit terror on massive scale

U.S. forces themselves have been responsible for other attacks on Iran in recent weeks. Many Western media outlets recently disclosed how the U.S. conducted a “covert” cyberattack against an Iranian military ship. The reports claim the ship had been collecting intelligence on cargo vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of obstructing any successful collaboration between Iran and Ansarullah forces in Yemen.

The U.S. has openly carried out air strikes against Yemen, Syria and Iraq in recent weeks. The air attacks aim to intimidate all anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist forces in the region, including those in Iran. The Biden administration often uses alleged alliances with Iran as a major pretext for its orders to bomb Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, Israel has continued to commit horrific crimes against the people of Gaza by specifically targeting hospitals and other health care facilities. United Nations organizations demanded access to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after Israeli terrorists raided the complex Feb. 15. 

World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic held a press briefing and told reporters, “We are, at the U.N., coordinating, asking, and looking for — urgently — access to the hospital.” (Washington Post, Feb. 15). Israel’s raid on the hospital displaced many patients and workers and left the facility without power, oxygen supplies or water, resulting in deaths.

Less than a week earlier, Israeli forces raided Al Amal Hospital in western Khan Younis in Gaza. This raid also forced relocation and mass suffering. 

Iran has proven to be a key ally to the Palestinian resistance against the ongoing genocide in occupied Gaza since October 2023. Iranian leaders may be able to offer more resources to the Palestinian liberation struggle than governments of other countries who also want to see an end to the continuous killings in Gaza. The U.S. and its settler-colonial client state, Israel, view Iran as a threat to their power and hegemony in West Asia. 

Anti-imperialist activists and advocates of Palestinian freedom must defend Iran against violent attacks, as well as uphold its material ability to support the justified resistance.