https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-hoping-iran-confrontation-before-november-election-sources-2020-7 A timeline of events preceding this article:
25 June 2020: An explosion hits the military complex of Parchin, 30
kilometers southeast of Tehran. Within the same hour a power outage
affected half of the southern city of Shiraz; housing major military facilities.
● Kursun, Muhammet; Dursun, Ahmet (26 June 2020). "Massive explosion reported
east of Iran's capital". Anadolu Agency.
● "Explosion at Iran gas storage facility, no casualties: State TV".
● "Iran Reports Explosion at Gas-Storage Tank Near Sensitive Military Site". Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 26 June 2020.
● Frantzman, Seth J. (28 June 2020). "Iran 'mystery' explosion may have been at a
secret ballistic missile site". The Jerusalem Post.
● "No conclusion on Parchin gas explosion's link with cyber-attack: Jalali". MEHR
News. 28 June 2020.
● June 29, 2020: Sanger, David E.; Bergman, Ronen; Fassihi, Farnaz (29 June
2020). "After Iranian Missile Facility Blows Up, Conspiracy Theories Abound in
Tehran". The New York Times.
○ Iran has issued an arrest warrant for President Trump and 35 others
over the killing of top general Qassem Soleimani and has requested
Interpol for help, according to the Fars news agency.
○ Bar, Neta (29 June 2020). "Was Israel behind Friday's mysterious blast
near Tehran?". Israel Hayom.
30 June 2020: "American, Israeli Officials Deny Sabotage of Iranian Missile Site,
Report Says". Haaretz. 30 June 2020.
○ An explosion occurs in the Sina At'har health center in the capital
Tehran, killing 15 women and 4 men. According to the deputy mayor
of Tehran the explosion was caused by a leak from medical gas
tanks in the building.
● 2 July 2020: An explosion hits a centrifuge facility near the city of Natanz.
Three quarters of the above-ground parts of the facility where advanced
centrifuges were being assembled were damaged.
○ "Mystery Group Claims Responsibility For 'Operation' Against Iran Nuclear
Facility". Radio Farda. 2 July 2020.
● 3 July 2020: Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reports that Israel was responsible
for two blasts at Iranian facilities — one related to uranium
enrichment, the other for missile production — over the past week.
○ Gross, Judah Ari. "Report: Israeli cyberattack caused Iran nuclear site fire,
F35s hit missile base". The Times of Israel.
● 4 July 2020: An explosion hits the Shahid Medhaj Zargan power plant in
the city of Ahvaz.
○ A chlorine gas leak occurs at Karun petrochemical center in the city
of Mahshahr, near Ahvaz.
○ 70 people fall ill as a result of a chlorine gas leak at Karun
petrochemical center in the city of Mahshahr, near Ahvaz.
● 5 July 2020: "Iran Admits Serious Damage to Natanz Nuclear Site, Setting Back
Program". The New York Times. 5 July 2020.
● https://web.archive.org/web/20200701000000*/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/
05/world/middleeast/iran-Natanz-nuclear-damage.html
● 7 July 2020: An explosion occurs inside an oxygen factory in the town of
Baqershar, south of the capital Tehran.
○ Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting says “human error” was the cause of
the blast.
● 9 July 2020: An explosion is reported in western Tehran.
○ The Iranian government denies that an explosion took place but admits
that power had been cut in the area.
○ Fasihi, Farnaz (9 July 2020). "Major Explosion Rocks Iran Again, the 3rd
Blast in 3 Weeks". The New York Times.
● 10 July 2020: "Iran state media says explosion heard in Tehran". Deutsche Welle.
● 11 July 2020: Critical incident at a residential building in Tehran.
○ The semi-official ISNA news agency quotes the Tehran Fire
Department as saying that a gas explosion shook a residential
building in Iran’s capital Tehran, injuring one person. A fire department spokesman told ISNA that several gas cylinders kept in
a basement blew up, damaging the building and injuring a resident.
● https://web.archive.org/web/20200701000000*/https://www.reuters.com/arti
cle/us-iran-blast/gas-explosion-shakes-building-in-iranian-capital-fire-depart
ment-idUSKCN24C0QK/
● 12 July 2020: A fire ignites at the Tondgooyan petrochemical plan in
southwest Iran.
Home Middle East Iran
Middle East
Iran
Explosion Causes Fire at Petrochemical Company in
Southwestern Iran
By Hana Levi Julian - 22 Tammuz 5780 – July 13, 20200
13 July 2020: An explosion hits an industrial complex near the northeastern
city of Mashad.
○ Mehr News Agency says the explosion occurred when a gas
condensate storage tank exploded, and that the police were
investigating the cause.
After the Business Insider article linked in this post was published on 16 July 2020, on 18 July 2020, an explosion was reported in an oil pipeline in the southwestern
city of Ahvaz. On 19 July 2020, an explosion hit a power plant in Isfahan province. No person was injured as a result of it. On 1 August 2020, Iranian security forces detained US-based Iranian monarchist
Jamshid Sharmahd. He was suspected of masterminding the 2008 Shiraz mosque bombing which killed 14 people and wounded 215. Iran claimed Jamshid Sharmahd, the head of pro-monarchy militant group Tondar, "directed armed and terrorist acts in Iran from America". Iran viewed Tondar (Persian for thunder) also known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, as a terrorist organization. The authorities asserted links between the group and several people in connection to the 2008 bombing. On August 6, 2020, the Trump administration fired the US State Department’s
Representative to Iran Brian Hook.
● August 12, 2020: Rezaian, Jason. "Opinion | A requiem for Trump's failed Iran
envoy".
● August 14, 2020: The United Nations Security Council votes against a
U.S.-sponsored proposal to extend an arms embargo against Iran. Only the
U.S. and the Dominican Republic voted in favor of it. Russia and China
voted against it. France, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Indonesia, Niger,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Tunisia, and Viet Nam
abstained.
● August 15, 2020: Hassan Rouhani says that the US has suffered a
humiliating defeat.
○ Trump news conference.
○ Experts say a “snapback” threatens to plunge the council into one of
its worst ever diplomatic crises.
● August 16, 2020: According to Germany’s DPA news agency, eu foreign
policy chief Josep Borrell’s spokesman said that the US lacks standing to
invoke snapback due to Trump’s May 2018 decision to leave the JCPOA
and Washington’s subsequent lack of participation in any of the accord’s
mechanisms.
● 17 August 2020: "US intelligence indicates Iran paid bounties to Taliban for
targeting American troops in Afghanistan". CNN. 17 August 2020.
● August 19, 2020:
https://2017-2021.state.gov/secretary-pompeo-travels-to-the-united-nations/
○ https://2017-2021-translations.state.gov/2020/08/19/secretary-pompeo-tra
vels-to-the-united-nations/
○ Donald Trump says that he has directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
to inform the UN Security Council that the US intends to "snap back"
international sanctions on Iran lifted as part of a 2015 nuclear deal.
● August 20, 2020: Mike Pompeo submits an official notification to the UN Security
Council president Dian Triansyah Djani, accusing Iran of significant
non-performance under the JCPOA.
● In an Aug. 20 letter to Djani, the three European participants in the
JCPOA—France, Germany, and the UK, known as the E3—said they do
not consider the U.S. notification effective because the United States
“ceased to be a JCPOA participant in 2018.”
● August 25, 2020: The UN Security Council presidency says it is "not in a position
to take further action" on Washington's snapback request for Iran, citing a lack of
consensus in the 15-member body.
● https://web.archive.org/web/20200920074352/https://www.state.gov/the-return-of-
un-sanctions-on-the-islamic-republic-of-iran/
● September 21, 2020: The US State Department, US Treasury Department, and
the US Commerce Department issued a series of new US sanctions against Iran
pursuant to a new Executive Order (“Iran Conventional Arms EO”) and the
pre-existing Executive Order 13382 imposing WMD non-proliferation sanctions (“EO 13882”), among other authorities.
https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/https://www.washingtonpost.com/w
orld/europe/un-watchdog-iran-building-at-underground-nuclear-facility/2020/10/27/
6dbcc4ee-18cc-11eb-8bda-814ca56e138b_story.html
● November 16, 2020:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/us/politics/trump-iran-nuclear.html?smid=url-
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On 27 November 2020, the Israeli government assassinated an Iranian nuclear physicist and scientist. He was regarded as the chief of Iran's nuclear program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohsen_Fakhrizadeh . On December 2, 2020, the Guardian Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran
approved a bill passed by the Iranian Parliament, entitled “Strategic Action
Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect Iranian Nation’s Interests”.
Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf communicated the
law to the government for implementation on the same day.
This was against the objections of the Iranian president.