Israeli sabotage cannot be ruled out in port blast, former Iranian nuclear negotiator says
Israeli sabotage cannot be ruled out as the reason behind a massive oil port blast in southern Iran on the day the third round of indirect nuclear talks were taking place in Oman, a former Iranian top nuclear negotiator told The National.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, now a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Programme on Science and Global Security at Princeton University, is a former diplomat who served as Iran 's ambassador to Germany and was previously a spokesman for the country's nuclear negotiators.
Saturday's incident, which killed at least 70 people in Bandar Abbas and injured 1,000 others, took place while Iranian and US technical experts were meeting in Muscat, less than 100km away from the southern Shahid Rajaee port, to hammer out the details of a potential nuclear agreement.
Iranian officials have said the explosion occurred as a result of negligence.
However, Israel's hawkish stance on Iran's nuclear programme and insistence on its complete dismantlement – something that Iran has outright rejected – calls for speculation on the true reasons behind Saturday's port explosion, Mr Mousavian indicated in an interview.
"I have no doubt about [Benjamin] Netanyahu 's strategy to sabotage the nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran. Therefore, one cannot rule out the scenario that Israel may have carried out the explosions in Bandar Abbas, as Israel is very angry about the progress of the talks and will resort to any action to obstruct them," said the former official who has been involved "directly or indirectly" in Iran's nuclear scene for the past decades.
Three rounds of talks have so far taken place in a "positive" environment, according to the different parties involved.
With the fourth round of negotiations slated to take place this Saturday, as talks become deeper and delve into the more intricate and complex aspects of a potential agreement, Mr Mousavian said he believes there could be a path forward, if the US President Donald Trump does not succumb to "extremely intense" pressure from Israel.
"We need to wait and see whether President Trump would be able to sideline Netanyahu or not," he stated, adding that Iran is ready to accept the most stringent methods of verification on its nuclear programme.
Covert operations
Over the past five years, Israel has intensified its covert operations against Iran, employing a blend of espionage, cyberattacks, and assassinations to disrupt Tehran's nuclear ambitions and regional influence.
In May 2022, Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a senior IRGC Quds Force officer, was assassinated in Tehran – a killing Iran attributed to Israel. Iran executed on Wednesday a man convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and carrying out the assassination.
Last year, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran by a bomb planted in his room, an operation reportedly orchestrated by Mossad with assistance from Iranian operatives.
Israel's military strategy has also encompassed direct strikes on Iranian targets in Syria and Lebanon.
Saturday's explosion was so powerful it was felt and heard about 50km away, Fars news agency said. It caused extensive damage in the area, with the roof of one building collapsing on employees. The blast shattered windows within a radius of several kilometres, Iranian media reported.
Aerial images showed what appeared to be a disintegrated building next to the blast site and two craters measuring about 50 metres across. Other containers nearby were destroyed by the explosion and the intense blazes that followed.
Tehran denied that any military equipment was being stored at the port near the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of global oil output passes.
Israeli officials denied on Saturday any connection to the explosion at the port, which was a target of a major cyberattack in 2020 that caused traffic jams on waterways and roads leading to the site.
According to Iranian officials, the talks with the US have so far not covered more sensitive issues, including Iran's ballistic missiles programme and its support for proxies across the region, like the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Mr Mousavi said Iran has an interest in supporting peace between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia – but will not stand in the way of the group's show of support to the Palestinians over Israel's attacks in Gaza.
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