The disaster, which occurred yesterday, shook the port city of Bandar Abbas and destroyed containers stored near the scene of the incident, the origin of which the authorities of the Islamic Republic still refrain from issuing an opinion.

Firefighters, supported by helicopters and airplanes, are extinguishing the embers of the fire caused by the explosion and are searching for possible victims, according to a report by IRNA, the official news agency.

The ship was carrying chemical products and the deflagration occurred in the middle of unloading, according to reports available at that time.

On his side, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that his country’s security services are on alert due to “previous sabotage and assassination attempts ‘to provoke our legitimate response’, a veiled allusion to Israeli actions inside Iran and abroad against scientists and high-ranking military officials.

In midweek, the Persian foreign minister held meetings in the Sultanate of Oman with a U.S. delegation focused on its peaceful nuclear development program.

The possibility of an agreement to ease tensions between Tehran and Washington is bad news for Israel, which ranks the Iranian authorities among its biggest adversaries.

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