Chris Schang
Well, it didn’t take long before the heat was turned up further on Iran. Whether it is due to sabotage or not, there have been a lot of mishaps in Iran over the past week. Much more so than normal and raises the idea that there could be foreign interference as a result. Tehran is tight-lipped about the situations probably out of embarrassment. Time will tell if we can get to the bottom of the incidents. Iran says they know what happened on a couple of incidents but they are not giving out any clues.
There is news coming out of Iran that there was a fire at a power plant and a chlorine gas leak at a petrochemical company. This is on top of the explosion at a gas storage facility near Tehran and another explosion at a medical facility in Tehran.
With the possible Israeli annexation of portions of the West Bank later this month, there is a lot of tension in the region. These mysterious explosions in Iran some believe were attributed to cyberattacks on the Iranian facilities. Some could have been just normal human error mistakes, but the number of incidents over the past week is very unusual to say the least.
Another Jerusalem Post article is analyzing the situation and made the following observations:
Now, after five mysterious explosions in Iran over the last two weeks, including one at a missile factory and another – the most significant – at the Natanz nuclear facility, it will be telling to see whether there will be any major shake-ups inside Iran as a result.
On Monday, some 120 Iranian legislators, out of 290, summoned President Hassan Rouhani for questions in a move that – if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lets it go through – could lead to impeachment. The stated reason is the plunging rial and the high cost of basic goods in the country. But it could also conveniently be a way to place responsibility on someone for the recent string of embarrassing explosions.
According to Raz Zimmt, an expert on Iran at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, the string of incidents is having an impact on the Iranian public, especially following the killing of al-Quds commander Qasem Soleimani in January, the subsequent Iranian downing of a Ukrainian airliner, the coronavirus that is wreaking havoc in the country and the economic crisis.
These events add to feelings of insecurity among the public and to blaming the government for being unable to provide basic security. It matters less to the public how these incidents continue to occur, but rather that they keep occurring and that the government seems helpless to stop it.
“Fingers are pointed at the regime that it does not provide its citizens with security,” Zimmt said in a podcast on Monday.
This adds to tension between the regime and the public, a tension that has reached a boiling point. It also adds unwanted pressure on the government already under intense pressure as a result of the US economic sanctions and the coronavirus.
This makes the government feel insecure, and insecure leaders under pressure, Zimmt said, may feel compelled to respond. And that response could either come against perceived domestic threats or threats from abroad.
I think we should keep an eye on the situation in the Middle East despite all the media attention on the Coronavirus and BLM situations. You never know when something could spiral downward in the Middle East. I would suspect it will continue to stay heated and that with the annexation coming up could help bring things to a head sooner rather than later.
Let‘s keep watching. And of course, keep looking up, for our redemption is drawing nigh as we see all the end times signs converging around us.
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