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Here’s the latest from the New York Times:
Israel carried out covert attacks on two major 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.
Now I don’t know if that’s true or false. Earlier blame was placed groups in Saudi Arabia and other enemies in Iran. A chemical factory explosion was also done by Israel, according to the report.
What I can’t figure out is why this was leaked. To be clear, there are no ‘old fashioned’ leaks on stuff like this except in extraordinary cases like Edward Snowden. When leaks like this happen — especially to the New York Times — it’s deliberate.
The ‘two Western officials’ is vague but rules out Iran but it’s an odd thing for US officials to leak because it would seemingly escalate things towards a war that they seem to be trying to avoid.
Maybe this is a clue:
One Western official called it a major symbolic strike that was fairly easy for Iran to repair and caused relatively little harm to civilians. But, the official said, it sent a stark warning of the damage that Israel could inflict, as conflict spreads across the Middle East and tensions rise between Iran and its adversaries, notably Israel and the United States
For me, that doesn’t add up because Iran would obviously know Israel is capable of sabotaging a pipeline, which is a trivial thing to do at the state level. Israel has sabotaged nuclear facilities in Iran and killed people, which are obviously tougher tasks.
Your guess is as good as mine as to what’s going on here. These are the three reporters behind the story: