Japan is turning to Israeli cybersecurity experts in advance of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Photo: Twitter

i24 News – Iran’s civil defense chief on Saturday accused Israel and the United States of being behind a cyberattack that crippled gasoline stations across the country this week.

“We are still unable to say forensically, but analytically I believe it was carried out by the Zionist Regime, the Americans, and their agents,” Gholamreza Jalali, head of civil defense said, Reuters reported.

Jalali added, however, that the investigation is still ongoing

In the past few years, Iran has said that it is on high alert for online assaults, laying blame on its arch-foes the US and Israel.

Meanwhile, the US and other Western powers accuse Iran of trying to disrupt and break into their networks, according to Reuters.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said earlier this week that the cyber attack — which disrupted the sale of heavily subsidized gasoline — was designed to get “people angry by creating disorder and disruption.”

His remarks stopped short of issuing blame for the attack, the Times of Israel reported.

However, they did suggest that he and others in the theocracy believe that anti-Iranian forces carried out the assault

Disruptions to the gas stations came ahead of the second anniversary of protests over a sharp increase in fuel prices in 2019, which turned political as protesters demanded the nation’s rulers step down.

Iran has blamed Israel for provoking unrest during protests, and claimed in July to have arrested a Mossad cell that planned to provoke violence during demonstrations, the Times reported.

Jalali, also in charge of the state’s cybersecurity, said that Iran was “certain” that the US and Israel were also behind cyberattacks on Iran’s railroads in July and the Shahid Rajaee Port in May 2020.