- Baded chemicals probably cause, says an official.
- The explosion occurs when Iran begins the third round of nuclear conversations with us.
- Govt Spox says it was not yet possible to determine the exact reason.
A great explosion probably caused by the explosion of chemical materials killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 700 on Saturday in the largest port in Iran, Bandar Abbas reported, Iranian state media reported.
The explosion, which hit the Shahid Rajaee section of the port, occurred when Iran began a third round of nuclear conversations with the United States in Oman, but there were no indications of a link between the two events.
Hossein Zafari, a spokeswoman for Iran’s crisis management organization, seemed to blame the poor storage of chemicals in containers in Shahid Rajae.
“The cause of the explosion was the chemicals within the containers,” Ilna news agency in Iran told the Ilna news agency.
“Previously, the Director General of Crisis Management had granted warnings to this port during his visits and had pointed out the possibility of danger,” said Zafari.
However, a spokesman for the Iranian government said that although chemicals had probably caused the explosion, it was not yet possible to determine the exact reason.
President Masoud Peeshkian ordered an incident investigation and sent his Interior Minister to the site, who said the efforts continued to extinguish the fire and preventing it from spreading to other areas.
Iran’s official news channels transmitted images of a vast cloud of smoke in black and orange that extends above the port after the explosion, and an office building with its blows blows and the papers and the waste scattered.
Located near the Strategic Strait of Hormoz, the port of Shahid Rajaee is the largest container center in Iran, which manages most of the country’s container goods, according to state media.
The explosion shattered the windows within a radius of several kilometers and was heard in Qeshm, an island 26 kilometers (16 miles) south of the port, Iranian media said.
Tasnim’s semi -official news agency published images of injured men lying on the road served in confusion scenes.
State TV previously reported that the mismanagement of flammable materials was a “contributing factor” to the explosion. A local crisis management official told State TV that the explosion took place after several containers stored in the port exploded.
While help workers tried to turn off fires, Puerto Customs officials said the trucks were being evacuated in the area and that the container courtyard where the explosion occurred probably contained “dangerous products and chemical products.” The activities in the port stopped after the explosion, authorities said.
Mortal incidents
A series of mortal incidents has affected the industrial infrastructure and Iranian energy in recent years, with many, such as Saturday’s explosion, blamed for negligence.
They have included refinery fires, a gas explosion in a coal mine and an emergency repair incident in Bandar Abbas that killed a worker in 2023.
Iran has blamed other incidents of his arch-foe Israel, which carried out attacks against the Iranian soil aimed at Iran’s nuclear program in recent years and last year bombarded the country’s aerial defenses.
Tehran said Israel was behind a February 2024 attack against Iranian gas pipes, while in 2020 computers in Shahid Rajae were run over by a cyber attack. He Washington Post He informed that Israel seemed to be behind that incident as retaliation for an anterior Iranian cyber attack.
Israel has indicated that it is nervous about the result of the conversations between the United States and Iran, demanding a complete dismantling of the Iran nuclear program. Tehran says that the program is used only for peaceful purposes, while international observers say they are approaching to build a bomb.
There were no immediate comments from the Military Office or Prime Minister of Israel when asked if he was involved in any way in Saturday’s explosion.
The oil facilities were not affected by the explosion on Saturday, Iranian authorities said.
The National Iranian oil distribution and distribution company said in a statement that “it had no connection with refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and pipelines.”
