Thick black smoke was still towering above the port on Sunday
After a big explosion at Iran’s largest commercial port killed at least forty people and injured more than 1,000, mourning has given way to anger. At Shahid Rajaee port on Saturday morning, there was an explosion. To donate blood, many people rushed to hospitals throughout the United States. A day later, fires are still blazing as a thick black cloud of toxic chemical substances hangs over the encompassing location.
People in nearby cities and towns had been informed by using the fitness ministry to live interior “till in addition observe” and wear more protective clothes.
In the nearby southern city of Bandar Abbas, home to the Iranian Navy’s fundamental base, all colleges and offices had been ordered to shut on Sunday to allow authorities to focus on the emergency attempt, state TV said.
A festival that became imagined to be a spontaneous celebration and turned into close to Shahid Rajee Port changed into a solemn occasion to recall the deceased and pray for the injured. On Monday, the government declared an afternoon of national mourning, and Hormozgan province additionally declared two days of mourning.
It serves as a reminder that while Iran has been physically shaken by the explosion, human beings up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) away have suggested feeling its results—it’s also being shaken through a developing blame game. Ambrey Intelligence, a private maritime hazard consultancy, stated it believed that excessive fires that might be seen spreading among boxes earlier than the explosion were a result of “wrong handling of a cargo of solid fuel meant to be used in Iranian ballistic missiles”.
The corporation stated that it had into aware that an Iranian-flagged ship “discharged a shipment of sodium perchlorate rocket gasoline on the port in March 2025” and that it believed the affected bins contained solid gas meant for ballistic missiles. The New York Times quoted a person with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying that what exploded turned into sodium perchlorate, a major component in solid gas for missiles.
Social media speculation that Iran’s navy and Revolutionary Guard have been storing rocket gasoline they’d these days imported from China at the port has caused some Iranians to question whether they can trust it. A navy spokesman has denied the claim. In Iran, a lot of people are pointing the finger at the government for incompetence or worse and asking, “How could a lot of inflammable cloth seem to have been left at the port without due care?”
The moment the driver sees a huge explosion rip through the Iranian port
That is a question that the Iranian regime will need to deal with. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited the scene of the explosion on Sunday, pronouncing: “We have come to see first-hand if there may be anything or any issue that the authorities can follow up on.”
Before the explosion, Pezeshkian had directed the interior minister to the location to steer an investigation into its motive. Defence ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik later told the national TV that “there was no imported or exported cargo for army gas or military use in the region”.
The port’s customs workplace stated in a statement carried employing national television that the explosion was likely caused by a fire that broke out on the dangerous and chemical materials’ garage depot.
There is also the question of whether or not Iran’s financial system may be affected, given that the port handles almost eighty of the us of a’s imports.
With the port shut down for a while, authorities issued a warning on Saturday about viable food shortages in the close to future. A day later, they were gambling that down, saying that the explosion only affected a part of the port and that the rest is functioning typically.
A photograph from Iran’s Tasnim news organization on Sunday confirmed a helicopter flying through a sky blackened by way of smoke to drop water on the catastrophe-struck area, AFP said.
Others showed firefighters doing away with a victim’s frame from shattered and blackened cargo containers. The main road to the website online had been blocked off by the government.
According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin had directed the dispatch of some of the expert firefighting aircraft to Iran to help in handling the disaster’s aftermath. Beijing’s overseas ministry said in a statement to AFP on Sunday that three Chinese sufferers have been in a “solid” condition and that it had obtained no similar reports of casualties.
The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, Turkey, the United Nations, and Russia have been among those sending their condolences. The explosion ripped through the port as Iranian and US delegations were meeting through mediators in Oman for high-level talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, with both sides reporting development.
Iran has said it is open to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions easing, but has insisted it will no longer forestall enriching uranium. It insists its nuclear programme is for civilian use.
- Middle East
- Iran