Mysterious port blast ‘reduced Iran’s leverage’

Mysterious port blast ‘reduced Iran’s leverage’

Yaakov Lappin, JNS

A rash of unexplained blazes and blasts at sensitive industrial, port and alleged Islamic Republican Guard Corps-linked facilities across the Islamic Republic of Iran in recent days raised questions about internal security, regime competence, and potential covert actions.

The series of fires and explosions plagued Iran through late April and early May 2025, striking critical infrastructure, including its primary maritime gateway, power plants and facilities linked by unconfirmed reports to its missile and drone programs.

The incidents, often left unexplained by Tehran or attributed to accidents, fueled intense speculation about their true cause, with sabotage strongly considered by some observers in some of the incidents, as the Iranian regime sought to downplay such possibilities.

The wave of incidents began with an explosion and fire on April 26 at the Shaheed Rajaei port at Bandar Abbas, on the southern Iranian coastline —a crucial hub for Iranian trade. Israel denied any role in the port blast.

The explosion occurred in a container that reportedly held chemicals imported from China for creating solid fuel for missiles. This was followed, according to an i24 report, on May 3 by a fire at the Montazer Ghaem Thermal Power Plant near Karaj in northern Iran.

A month earlier, on April 4, multiple reported incidents had occurred: a fire at a missile production facility in Tehran; a blaze in an industrial zone in Natanz, near Isfahan, a region known for its nuclear facilities; a fire at a motorcycle factory in Mashhad, reported to have links to the IRGC missile program; and another fire at the Mahmoudabad Industrial Zone in Qom, an area that also happens to house an underground uranium enrichment facility.

The pattern persisted into May, with a fire reported on May 5 at an underground IRGC ammunition depot near Shiraz, southern Iran.

The economic toll of these incidents appeared substantial, with one senior Iranian official estimating on May 5 that the damage from the first Bandar Abbas port explosion alone exceeded $3 billion.

Mysterious blasts at other facilities, such as a factory in Mashhad at a site linked by some to the IRGC, are “much more likely to be sabotage,” he added.

If the regime imported missile fuel to the port and kept it there, rather than transporting it inland to missile bases, and now it is gone, Iran’s leverage is severely degraded, said Ghasseminejad.

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