• Poorly stored chemicals probably cause an official.
• Blast occurs when Iran begins the third round of nuclear conversations with us.
• Govt Spox says it was not yet possible to determine the exact cause.

A huge explosion probably caused by the explosion of chemical materials killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 700 Saturday in Iran’s largest port, Bandar Abbas reported Iranian state media.

The explosion that hit the Shahid Rajaee section in the harbor took place when Iran began a third round of nuclear conversations with the United States in Oman, but there was no indication of a connection between the two events.

Hossein Zafari, a spokesman for Iran’s crisis management organization, seemed to blame the explosion on poor storage of chemicals in containers in Shahid Rajaee.

“The reason for the explosion was the chemicals inside the containers,” he told Iran’s Ilna news agency.

“Previously, the Director -General of Crisis Management had given warnings to this port during their visit and had pointed out the possibility of danger,” Zafari said.

However, an Iranian government spokesman said that although chemicals had probably caused the explosion, it was not yet possible to determine the exact cause.

President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation into the incident and sent to the scene that his Interior Minister, who said the endeavors continued to extinguish the fire and prevent it from spreading to other areas.

Iran’s official news channels sent the recordings of a huge black and orange cloud of smoke waving up over the harbor in the wake of the explosion, and an office building with its doors blown off and papers and dirt strolled around.

Shahid Rajaee Port is located near the strategic Hormo Strait and is Iran’s largest container nap, which handles a majority of the country’s container products, according to state media.

The blast crushed windows within a radius of several kilometers and was heard in Qeshm, an island 26 kilometers (16 miles) south of the harbor, Iranian media said.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency published footage of wounded men lying on the road that was prone to in the midst of scenes with confusion.

State TV earlier reported that poor handling of flammable materials was a “contributing factor” to the explosion. A local crisis management employee told State TV that the explosion took place after several containers stored in the harbor exploded.

When emergency workers tried to extinguish fires, the port’s customs officials said, who were evacuated from the area and that the container garden, where the explosion occurred probably contained “dangerous goods and chemicals”. Activities in the harbor were stopped after the explosion, officials said.

Deadly events

A number of deadly events have affected Iranian energy and industrial infrastructure in recent years, with many, like Saturday’s explosion, accused of negligence.

They have included refinery fires, a gas explosion at a coal mine and an emergency repair event in Bandar Abbas, killing a worker in 2023.

Iran has blamed some other events on his Arch-Foe Israel, which has carried out attacks on Iranian soil that targeted Iran’s nuclear program in recent years and last year bombed the country’s air defense.

Tehran said Israel was behind an attack in February 2024 on Iranian gas lines, while in 2020 computers in Shahid Rajaee were hit by a cyberattack. The Washington Post Reported that Israel seemed to be behind this incident as retaliation for a former Iranian cyberattack.

Israel has indicated that it is nervous about the result of US-Iran conversations and requires a full run of Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran says the program is used only for peaceful purposes, while international observers say it is getting closer to being able to build a bomb.

There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military or prime minister’s office when he was asked for a comment on whether it was involved in Saturday’s explosion.

Oil facilities were not affected by the explosion on Saturday, Iranian authorities said.

National Iranian Petroleum Refining and Distribution Company said in a statement that it had “no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and oil pipes.”