Playing With Fire In Iran

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 The insane Ayatollahs are getting themselves into a pickle in Iran. They are showing their hands too arrogantly around the Middle East. The Ayatollahs are urging Hezbollah to lob quite inaccurate missiles (supplied by them) into Israel which frequently get shot down over Lebanese territory. Or they do not hit any real targets. 
The Israelis are now moving to put back in place a previous truce-line imposed by the United Nations (Resolution 1701) in Lebanon whereby the Hezbollah will have to withdraw their military units above the Litani River - effectively creating a demilitarized zone in southern Lebanon.  "moving to put back in place"  means a ground incursion by the Israelis. Do the Ayatollahs really care what happens to Lebanese civilians? No, not really.

In Yemen, the Ayatollahs have convinced their Shia Houthi counterparts to fire missiles at ships which has seriously dented global trade through the Bab el Mandeb which controls the entrance into the Red Sea. Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk two of the biggest shipping companies in the world have stopped their ships from entering the Red Sea (and the Suez Canal). British Petroleum has stopped sailing their oil tankers through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea too.
Not only is this a major blow to global trade it is also a great loss for Egypt which earns substantial revenue from the Suez Canal. Rest assured it will not be without consequences.  Sadly the heroic Houthis who held their ground so well against Saudi Arabian aggression will most likely suffer military retaliation which they are not in a position to withstand. Do the Ayatollahs care? No, not really. 
These are the Ayatollahs proxies, kept on a leash with money, weapons and missiles to do the bidding of the Ayatollahs around the Middle East. Towards no strategic ends or strategic purpose because the Iranians simply do not have any role to play in the Arab world.

And their actions are not without consequences. Once again mysterious fires are continuing to break out all over Iran. Over the past few weeks mysterious fires have broken out at industrial plants, infrastructure sites and other places around Iran. In particular oil refining sites and power plants have caught fire. The Ayatollahs "dismiss" the fires as being caused by "human error". Too many human errors. 
Here is the latest - an oil refinery in Khorasan blew up last week:



Then two days ago 70% of Iran's 33,000 petrol stations got hacked and were made inoperable. They are still trying to fix the problem.   
Iranian state TV quoted a statement from the country’s Oil Ministry that said that more than 30% of gas stations remain in service. The country has some 33,000 gas stations.

"Israel-linked group claims cyberattack that shut down 70% of Iran’s gas stations. The group known as Gonjeshke Darande takes responsibility, says attack is response to Iranian aggression

“This cyberattack comes in response to the aggression of the Islamic Republic and its proxies in the region,” the group said in statements in Persian and English.

The group is believed to be linked to the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate.

It claimed responsibility for a cyberattack last year that forced the Iranian state-owned Khuzestan Steel Co. to halt production. A year prior, the group targeted Iran’s fuel distribution system, paralyzing gas stations across the country.

The Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200 was responsible for the 2022 cyberattack on the Iranian steel plant.

Iran disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus — widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation — disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country’s nuclear sites in the late 2000s.
If you throw stones at your neighbours be prepared for your neighbours to throw stones at your house. It is not rocket science.
Do the Ayatollahs care? No, not really. They are not rational human beings.  They really do not have anything better to do with their lives.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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