The explosion, which hit the Shahid Rajaee section of the
port, occurred as Iran began a third round of nuclear talks with the
United States in Oman.
Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran's crisis management
organization, appeared to blame the explosion on poor storage of chemicals in
containers at Shahid Rajaee.
"The cause of 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 visits and had pointed out the
possibility of danger," Zafari said.
However, an Iranian government spokesperson said that
although chemicals had likely caused the blast, it was not yet possible to
determine the exact reason.
President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation of the
incident and sent to the site his interior minister, who said efforts were
continuing to extinguish the fire and prevent it from spreading to other areas.
Iran's official news channels aired footage of a vast black
and orange cloud of smoke billowing up above the port in the aftermath of the
blast.
Located near the strategic Strait of Hormoz, Shahid Rajaee
port is Iran’s biggest container hub, handling a majority of the country’s
container goods.
The blast was heard in Qeshm, an island 16 miles south of
the port.
State TV earlier reported that poor handling of flammable
materials was a "contributing factor" to the explosion.
A local crisis management official told state TV that the
blast took place after several containers stored at the port exploded.
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