- Poorly stored chemicals probably cause a civil servant.
- Blast occurs when Iran begins the third cycle of nuclear talks with us.
- Govt Spox says it was not yet possible to determine the exact reason.
A huge explosion probably caused by the explosion of chemical materials killed at least 18 people and injured more than 700 Saturday at the largest Iranian port, reported Bandar Abbas, Iranian media reported.
The explosion, which struck the Shahid Rajaee section of the port, occurred when Iran began a third cycle of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, but there was no indication of a link between the two events.
Hossein Zafari, spokesperson for the organization of the management of the Iranian crisis, seemed to blame the explosion on the bad storage of chemicals in the containers of Shahid Rajaee.
“The cause of the explosion was chemicals inside the containers,” he told the Iran news agency in Iran.
“Previously, the director general of crisis management had given warnings to this port during their visits and had stressed the possibility of a danger,” said Zafari.
However, an Iranian government spokesman said that although chemicals have probably caused the explosion, it was not yet possible to determine the exact reason.
President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation into the incident and sent his Minister of the Interior to the site, who said the efforts continued to turn off the fire and prevent him from spreading to other regions.
Iran’s official news channels have released images of a large black and orange smoke cloud that escapes above the port in the aftermath of the explosion, and an office building with its explosive doors and the papers and the scattered debris.
Located near the Strategic Strait of Hormoz, the port of Shahid Rajaee is the largest container center in Iran, managing the majority of container goods in the country, according to the state media.
The explosion broke the windows within a radius of several kilometers and was heard in Qeshm, an island of 26 kilometers (16 miles) south of the port, Iranian media said.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency displayed images of injured men lying on the road that were tense in the middle of confusion scenes.
State television previously reported that a poor management of flammable materials was a “contributing factor” to the explosion. An official of management of the local crisis told State TV that the explosion had taken place after several containers were stored at the exploded port.
While the emergency officers were trying to extinguish the fires, the Port customs agents said that trucks were evacuated from the area and that the container site where the explosion occurred contained “dangerous goods and chemicals”. Port activities were interrupted after the explosion, officials said.
Mortal incidents
A series of fatal incidents has struck Iranian energy and industrial infrastructure in recent years, with a lot, such as the explosion on Saturday, charged to neglect.
They included refinery fires, an explosion of gas in a coal mine and an emergency repair incident at Bandar Abbas who killed a worker in 2023.
Iran has blamed a few other incidents at its Arch-en-Tas Israel, which has led to Iranian soil attacks targeting the Iranian nuclear program in recent years and has bombed the country’s air defenses last year.
Tehran said that Israel was behind an attack in February 2024 against Iranian gas pipelines, while in 2020, the Shahid Rajaee computers were affected by a cyber attack. THE Washington Post reported that Israel seemed to be behind this incident as reprisals for an anterior Iranian cyber attack.
Israel said he was nervous about the outcome of Iran’s American talks, demanding a complete dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program. Tehran says that the program is used only for peaceful purposes, while international observers say that it is closer to the possibility of building a bomb.
There was no immediate comment from the soldiers or the office of the Israeli Prime Minister when he was asked to know if he was in a certain way involved in the explosion on Saturday.
The oil facilities were not affected by the explosion on Saturday, the Iranian authorities said.
The National Iranian Petroleum Refining and Distribution Company said in a press release that it had “no link with refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and oleagnes”.
