Missile fuel from China ‘caused Iran port explosion'
A deadly explosion at Iran's largest port is believed to have been caused by missile fuel ingredients sent by China.
At least 40 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in the blast in Shahid Rajaei port on Saturday, which the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said was likely triggered by containers of chemicals.
The agency did not specify which chemicals they were but it was reported in January that China was to ship sodium perchlorate, a common missile fuel component, to Iran after its supplies ran low following attacks on Israel.
In February, a ship called the Golbon was reported to have arrived in Iran from China carrying 1,000 tons of ammonium perchlorate, another substance commonly used to make solid rocket fuel.
CNN said the vessel was operated by the Iranian Islamic Republic of Shipping Lines and that Tehran's Sufficiency Jihad Organisation, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, had purchased the chemical.
The Maritime Executive, a leading shipping journal, later confirmed the arrival in Iran of the MV Jairan, another ship carrying missile fuel ingredients from China.
It reported that Iranian authorities appeared to have taken no measures to hide its movements and that it had left Shanghai with its tracking system switched on.
The combined cargos of the MV Jairan and the Golbon 'would be sufficient to fuel approximately 250 medium range Khybar-Shikan and Fattah missiles, or shorter range Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, or their Houthi equivalents', the journal wrote.
Iran has denied there were any missile fuel ingredients at the port in Bandar Abbas, 1,000km (621 miles) south of Tehran, at the time of the explosion.
Brig Gen Reza Talaei-Nik told state media on Sunday: 'There were no imported or exported shipments related to military use or rocket fuel at the site of the incident.'
Saturday's explosion came just hours after Iran and the United States met in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.
The US and Iran will continue talks next week in Europe. However, Iran remains sceptical about the outcome.
'Some of our differences are very serious,' Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, told Tehran's state television. 'But can we reach an agreement? I am hopeful but very cautious.'
While Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned last week that Iran had enough enriched uranium to produce several nuclear warheads.
Foreign conspiracy
Some Iranian media suggested on Sunday that the blast was a foreign conspiracy.
An editorial in Ham-Mihan read: 'It is improbable that the explosion's concurrence with the start of technical talks between Iran and America is coincidental.'
Suggesting Israel could have been behind the blast, it noted that Iran has thousands of people with 'sensitive access' that the Jewish state could potentially recruit as saboteurs.
However, Israeli security sources told The Telegraph that the incident was simply an echo of the Beirut Port tragedy in 2020, in which over 200 people were killed by a major explosion.
Lebanese authorities said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser – commonly used for ammunition and explosives – had been negligently stored for years.
Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon told The Telegraph that video footage analysis of Saturday's blast in Iran was 'very similar to the storage accident we saw at the port of Beirut'.
The analysis shows there are 'increasing signs that a chain reaction due to an unsafe discharge caused the ignition and explosion of a shipment of chemicals consistent with sodium perchlorate or ammonium nitrate in units of 25 tons each', he said.
Iran has long sourced missile fuel ingredients from its allies. In 2023, Politico Europe revealed Iranian negotiations with Russia and China to purchase ammonium perchlorate, a powerful oxidiser used in solid rocket propellants.
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