Massive explosion at Iranian port linked to missile fuel shipment kills 14, injures 750

MUSCAT, Oman — A massive explosion and fire rocked a port Saturday in southern Iran believed to be linked to a shipment of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant, killing 14 people and injuring about 750 others.

Helicopters dumped water on the raging fire hours after the initial explosion, which happened at the Shahid Rajaei port just as Iran and the United States met Saturday in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

No one in Iran suggested that the explosion was the result of an attack. On Wednesday, however, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led Iran in Saturday’s talks, acknowledged that “our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response.”

Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni gave the casualty figure in an interview on state television. But there were few details on what sparked the blaze just outside Bandar Abbas, which burned into Saturday night, reportedly causing other containers to explode.

Missile fuel chemical shipment suspected

The port took in a shipment of the missile fuel chemical in March, the private security firm Ambrey said. The fuel is 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.

“The fire was reportedly the result of improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles,” Ambrey said.

Ship-tracking data analyzed by the Associated Press put one of the vessels believed to be carrying the chemical in the vicinity in March, as Ambrey said. Iran hasn’t acknowledged taking the shipment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

It’s unclear why Iran wouldn’t have moved the chemicals from the port, particularly after the Beirut port blast in 2020. That explosion, caused by the ignition of hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, killed more than 200 people and injured over 6,000 others. Israel, however, did target Iranian missile sites where Tehran uses industrial mixers to create solid fuel.

Social media video of the explosion on Saturday at Shahid Rajaei showed reddish-hued smoke rising from the fire just before the detonation. That suggests a chemical compound involved in the blast.

“Get back! get back! Tell the gas [truck] to go!” a man in one video shouted just before the blast. “Tell him to go, it’s going to blow up! Oh, God, this is blowing up! Everybody evacuate! Get back! Get back!”

On Saturday night, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said that Iran’s Customs Administration blamed the blast on a “stockpile of hazardous goods and chemical materials stored in the port area,” without elaborating.

Port a major destination for Iranian cargo

Shahid Rajaei has been a target in the past. A 2020 cyberattack attributed to Israel targeted the port, after Israel said that it had thwarted a cyberattack targeting its water infrastructure, which it attributed to Iran.

Social media videos after the explosion showed black billowing smoke. Others showed glass blown out of buildings miles from the blast site. State media video showed the injured crowding into at least one hospital, with ambulances arriving as medics rushed one person past on a stretcher.

Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, told state television that the blast originated from containers at Shahid Rajaei, without elaborating. State television also reported that the explosion has caused a building to collapse, though no details were offered.

The Interior Ministry said it had launched an investigation into the blast. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian offered his condolences for those affected.

The Shahid Rajaei port in Hormozgan province is about 650 miles southeast of Tehran on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes.

U.S.-Iran nuclear talks

Iran and the United States, meanwhile, held in-depth negotiations in Oman over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program Saturday, ending the discussions with a promise for more talks and perhaps another high-level meeting next weekend.

The talks ran for several hours in Muscat, the mountain-wrapped capital of this sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.

Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, told state television after the talks that the parties exchanged written points throughout the day in discussions that he described as “very serious and work-focused.”

“This time, the negotiations were much more serious than in the past, and we gradually entered into deeper and more detailed discussions,” he said. “We have moved somewhat away from broader, general discussions — though it is not the case that all disagreements have been resolved. Differences still exist both on major issues and on the details.”

A senior U.S. administration official said that the talks were “positive and productive.”

“This latest round of direct and indirect discussions lasted over four hours,” the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks. “There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal. We agreed to meet again soon, in Europe, and we thank our Omani partners for facilitating these talks.”

Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who mediated the two previous rounds of talks in Muscat and Rome, offered a positive note at the end of Saturday’s negotiations.

Iran and the U.S. “identified a shared aspiration to reach agreement based on mutual respect and enduring commitments,” Albusaidi posted on X. “Core principles, objectives and technical concerns were all addressed. Talks will continue next week with a further high level meeting provisionally scheduled for May 3.”

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes — or support Israel in doing so — targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels.

Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers did limit Tehran’s program. But Trump during his first term unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018, setting in motion years of heightened tensions and recriminations. The wider Middle East also remains on edge over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Trump, who was at the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, again said that he hoped negotiations would lead to a new nuclear deal. But he said he held out the possibility of a military strike if they didn’t.

“The Iran situation is coming out very well,” Trump said on Air Force One. “We’ve had a lot of talks with them and I think we’re going to have a deal. I’d much rather have a deal than the other alternative. That would be good for humanity.”

He added: “There are some people that want to make a different kind of a deal — a much nastier deal — and I don’t want that to happen to Iran if we can avoid it.”

Talks turn to experts

From the Iranian side, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-e Ravanchi headed up Tehran’s expert team, said Mohammad Golzari, an Iranian government official. Takht-e Ravanchi took part in the 2015 nuclear talks.

The U.S. technical team was led by Michael Anton, the director of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s policy planning staff. Anton doesn’t have the nuclear policy experience of those who led Washington’s negotiations in 2015.

Iran has insisted that maintaining its enrichment ability is key. The lead U.S. negotiator, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, has issued conflicting statements on the issue, first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop. The demand that all enrichment stop also has been repeated by Rubio.

Still, Iranians remain hopeful that the talks could be successful, as the Iranian rial has rebounded from historic lows during which it took more than 1 million rials to buy one U.S. dollar.

“It’s OK to negotiate, to make the nuclear program smaller or bigger, and reach a deal,” Tehran resident Farzin Keivan said. “Of course we shouldn’t give them everything. After all, we’ve suffered a lot for this program.”

Gambrell writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.