Officials summoned over deadly port explosion, says minister

The shipment that exploded and caught fire at Rajaei port had no customs entry number or declaration tying it to its authority, Iran's Customs Administration said Monday.
"The vessel and its cargo were not under our jurisdiction," it said.
Earlier, ILNA news agency quoted an official as saying that the blast occurred after hazardous goods were misdeclared as regular cargo.
The outlet later removed the report from its website without explanation.

The explosion at Rajaei port stemmed from internal safety failures and mismanagement, said an Iranian lawmaker, rejecting foreign involvement.

"No evidence has been presented so far to suggest foreign actors were involved," said Ali Khezrian, a member of parliament’s National Security Committee said on Monday.

"Deflecting blame under current circumstances will only distract public attention from those truly responsible for this disaster," he added, according to Iranian media.

"We believe that the rights of the people of Azerbaijan must be respected, and Karabakh must belong to the country of Azerbaijan. Karabakh is an inseparable part of the soil of Azerbaijan, and we respect that," Masoud Pezeshkian said during a meeting with Azerbaijani officials in Baku on Monday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev officially welcomed Pezeshkian at the Zagulba Presidential Palace on Monday afternoon, followed by a private meeting between the two leaders and a joint session of their high-ranking delegations.

Tensions between Tehran and Baku have run high for years, largely due to Baku's close ties with Iran's nemesis Israel and a January 2023 attack on Azerbaijan's embassy in Tehran.

Last week, Pezeshkian expressed hopes for a rapid improvement in relations and cooperation between the two countries as part of a broader effort to mend ties.

Iran and Azerbaijan held two-day joint naval exercises in the Caspian Sea in November, in moves towards rapprochement.

Pezeshkian’s remarks come a month after Iran welcomed a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a decades-long dispute rooted in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's dissolution, saw a significant development in March when both Azerbaijan and Armenia announced an agreement on the text of a peace treaty.

Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but historically with a majority ethnic Armenian population, had long been a flashpoint between the two South Caucasus nations. 

Iran, sharing a northern border with both countries, has consistently underscored its interest in regional stability, particularly along its 44-kilometer frontier with Azerbaijan.

Iran’s judiciary chief instructed authorities to quickly identify and prosecute those responsible for the explosion at Rajaei port.

Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei called on the prosecutor general and intelligence agencies to "promptly identify the culprits, those who delayed action, and those whose negligence caused the incident," according to the Judiciary’s media center.

The fire at Rajaei port symbolized the collapse of the Islamic Republic, said Iranian filmmaker and former political prisoner Jafar Panahi.

"The Bandar Abbas fire is the flame of a regime’s collapse that has turned Iran to ashes over nearly half a century, resulting in poverty, corruption, discrimination, repression, destruction of infrastructure, and global isolation," Panahi wrote in a post on Instagram.

“An unaccountable system ruling in the name of religion and security had become the nation’s main enemy.”

Panahi called for a peaceful resolution through "a free and transparent referendum under international supervision" to restore sovereignty to the people.

The following video shows rescue teams at Rajaei Port in Bandar Abbas were clearing debris at the site of explosion on Monday.