Iranian leaders call for answers after port explosion
President Masoud Pezeshkia visited those injured in the blast which killed 40 people at the Shahid Rajaei port outside of Bandar Abbas.
Iran’s president and supreme leader have told officials they must find out why an explosion rocked one of the Islamic Republic’s main ports, killing 40 people.
Saturday’s blast at the Shahid Rajaei port outside of Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province, injured about 1,000 others.
President Masoud Pezeshkia visited those injured in a huge explosion that rocked one of the Islamic Republic’s main ports, a facility purportedly linked to an earlier delivery of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant.
“We have to find out why it happened,” Mr Pezeshkian said during a meeting with officials aired by Iranian state television.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, separately offered his condolences over the blast — and left open the possibility that sabotage caused the explosion.
“It is the duty of security officials and judicial authorities to conduct a thorough investigation to detect if there’s been any negligence or deliberate acts that have caused this and to follow this up according to regulations,” a statement in his name said.
“All officials must know it’s their duty to prevent bitter, damaging events.”
While Iran’s military sought to deny the delivery of ammonium perchlorate from China, new videos emerged showing an apocalyptic scene at the still-smouldering port.
Authorities described the fire as being under control, saying emergency workers hoped that it would be fully extinguished later Sunday. Overnight, helicopters and heavy cargo aircraft flew repeated sorties over the burning port, dumping seawater on the site.
Satellite pictures taken Sunday by Planet Labs PBC and analysed by The Associated Press showed a huge plume of black smoke still over the site.
Provincial Governor Mohammad Ashouri gave the latest death toll, Iranian state TV reported, and declared three days of mourning.
Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s Red Crescent society, said that only 190 of about 1,000 injured remained in hospital on Sunday, according to a statement carried by an Iranian government website.
Private security firm Ambrey says the port received the missile fuel chemical in March. It was part of a shipment of ammonium perchlorate from China by two vessels to Iran, first reported in January by the Financial Times.
The chemical used to make solid propellant for rockets was going to be used to replenish Iran’s missile stocks, which had been depleted by its direct attacks on Israel during the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In a first reaction on Sunday, Iranian defence ministry spokesman Reza Talaeinik denied missile fuel had been imported through the port.
“No sort of imported and exporting consignment for fuel or military application was (or) is in the site of the port,” he told state television by telephone.
