AFPThe Minister of the Interior of Iran said that negligence was a factor in the massive explosion and the fires of the largest port of containers in the country, while the death toll reached at least 70.
Eskandar Momeni said that the explosion on Saturday at the port of Shahid Rajaee in Bandar Abbas, who also injured more than 1,000 people, was caused by “gaps, including non-compliance with security and neglect precautions”.
“Some people judged responsible” had been summoned for interrogation, he added.
The customs authorities said that imported freight has caught fire and exploded. The Ministry of Defense denied foreign reports that it was an expedition of a missile fuel chemicals.
Hormozgan province’s crisis management director Mehrdad Hassanzadeh also said on Monday that the port’s fire fighting effort was “almost at its last stadiums”.
Hormozgan governor Mohammad Ashouri, Taziani, said that the port’s cleaning operations could mean continuing for several days, and that he could take one to two weeks before the situation returned to normal.
He estimated that 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) – almost two thirds of the site – were seriously affected by the explosion.
The customs administration said that the fiery and exploded cargo had been recorded or officially declared before the incident, according to the ISNA news agency.
On Sunday, the CEO of the company that operated the affected area, Sina Marine and the Port Department development company, blamed “a repeated and catastrophic error involving false declarations of dangerous goods”.
The Iranian Defense Ministry has denied information that the explosion was caused by the inappropriate handling of sodium perchlorate expedition, a solid fuel used for ballistic missiles.
Brig Gen Reza Talai-Nik spokesperson said on Sunday that there was “that there was not and that there was no importation or export of fuel or cargo deliveries for military use near the incident”, and accused the foreign media of disseminating “.”
Ambrey Intelligence, a Private Consulting Cabinet on Maritime Risks, told the Associated Press that the port had received a sodium perchlorate expedition last month, and that the explosion was “the result of poor manipulation”.
The New York Times also cited an anonymous person with links with the Iranian revolution guards saying that the sodium perchlorate exploded.
