Over 500 injured in massive blast at Iran port as 3rd round of US nuclear talks begins
A massive explosion and fire rocked a port on Saturday in southern Iran, injuring at least 516 people, Iranian state television reported.
The blast happened at the Shahid Rajaei port just outside of Bandar Abbas, a major facility for container shipments for the Islamic Republic that handles some 80 million tons (72.5 million metric tons) of goods a year.
Social media videos showed black billowing smoke after the blast. Others showed glass blown out of buildings kilometers away from the epicentre of the explosion.
Authorities offered no cause for the explosion hours later, though videos suggested whatever ignited at the port was highly combustible.
Industrial accidents happen in Iran, particularly at its aging oil facilities that struggle for access to parts under international sanctions. But Iranian state TV specifically ruled out any energy infrastructure as causing or being damaged in the blast.
Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, told Iranian state TV that first responders were trying to reach the area while others were attempting to evacuate the site.
Hasanzadeh said the blast came from containers at Rajaei port in the city, without elaborating. State TV also reported there had been a building collapse caused by the explosion, though there were no immediate other details offered.
Rajaei port is some 1,050 kilometers southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 per cent of all oil traded passes.
The blast happened as Iran and the United States met on Saturday in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme, talks that likely will hinge on the Islamic Republic’s enrichment of uranium.
Iranian state television reported the talks had begun in Muscat, the mountain-wrapped capital of this sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. A person close to US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, also acknowledged the meeting had started.
However, neither Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi nor Witkoff offered any immediate specifics or details on the talks that they’ll lead.
Araghchi arrived Friday in Oman and met with Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who has mediated the two previous round of talks in Muscat and Rome.
Araghchi then visited the Muscat International Book Fair, surrounded by television cameras and photojournalists. Video late Saturday morning showed Araghchi heading to the talks.
Witkoff was in Moscow on Friday meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin. He arrived Saturday to Oman, where the talks were expected to start in the coming hours, a source familiar with Witkoff’s travels told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.
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