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Iranian port that went up in smoke was ‘critical to survival of regime’

Israel has denied any role in the huge rocket fuel blast, which left at least 28 dead

April 28, 2025 10:28
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Smoke rises at the scene of an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock, southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan (Photo by MEYSAM MIRSADEH/TASNIM NEWS/AFP via Getty Images)
3 min read

The massive explosion at Iran’s largest commercial port on Saturday could pose a threat to the survival of the regime, an Israeli expert on the country has said.

Beni Sabti, who works on the Iran programme at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told Israeli newspaper Maariv that the Shahid Rajaee port in the southern city of Bandar Abbas “was the most important port for the regime”.

Sabti said the port was important “not only because it was the largest in Iran, but because the hub was used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to transfer weapons to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and the Houthis.”

It was also used “to illegally transfer oil to China,” Sabti added.

Topics:

Iran

Israel