Posted on 08/30/2009 6:11:30 AM PDT by nuconvert
In the middle of the night, at 1:30 in the morning of Friday, August 14th, there was a large explosion at the monster petrochemical facility of the Iranian Pars Petrochemical Company in Bandar Assaluyeh. It is the biggest such plant in Iran, and the second largest in the whole Middle East (second only to one in Saudi Arabia).
The explosion, which took place in pipes carrying Liquid Petroleum Gas (which is mostly propane), caused fires throughout the facility. It took at least three hours before the fires were brought under control. At least two persons died (fortunately, at that hour personnel was at a minimum) and at least 30% of the plant was completely destroyed. Pars was forced to shut down the entire facility. Early estimates predicted it would remain closed for a month or two, and as of this writing it is still shut down.
The incident was almost certainly an act of sabotage by the regimes enemies, and the whole story has been spiked. But the effects can be seen as far away as Tehran. Due to the chronic shortage of gasoline, many of the citys 3500 buses and thousands of taxis had been converted to run on LPG. They were grounded after the attack on Pars, amounting to almost all of the two thousand LPG-run buses and, at a minimum, hundreds of taxis. Some of them are now being switched back to gasoline, but, given the countrys notorious lack of efficiency, it is a slow process. All this not only increases the ongoing distress of Iranian commuters, but heightens the countrys vulnerability to a potential cutoff of foreign gasoline, which has been proposed by bills now on the Congressional agenda.
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
bttt
Excellent read but with everything coming out of Iran lately, more information is needed. One undeniable issue we face from Obama snubbing the demonstrators, the USA will again be demonized as the great Satan from the very people we gave hope to rise against the regime before Obama came along. Ugly American label goes to you Barack and the Iraninan people know it.
Pong
“One undeniable issue we face from Obama snubbing the demonstrators, the USA will again be demonized as the great Satan from the very people we gave hope to rise against the regime before Obama came along”
Many posters of Obama have been set on fire in Iran. The Iranian people have seen the support they’ve received from Americans thru the internet. They rightly distinguish between our gov’t and our people.
Just as we should theirs.
“The Iranian people have seen the support theyve received from Americans thru the internet. They rightly distinguish between our govt and our people.”
“Just as we should theirs.”
Exactly!
If the regime collapsed, a good bet is that a large number of them would fly to Iraq and focus on destabilizing it.
Thanks for the ping.
Most likely.
Of course they’re doing that now
Indeed, I think they’ll pick it up again after the US is gone. There won’t be anything to stop them except for the Sunni insurgent groups.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.