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France 24
07-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
What an explosion in an Iranian port reveals about the importation of Chinese weapons
It began with a plume of yellow smoke rising from a container at the Iranian port of Shahid Rajee near the town of Bandar Abbas on April 26. A few seconds later, an explosion rang out. Photos of the aftermath of the explosion show the force of the blast. A massive crater was formed and a large part of the port was charred and blackened. Nearby containers were swept aside by the force of the explosion. Cause remains unclear The evening of the explosion, a source with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the New York Times that what exploded was sodium perchlorate, a component in missile propellant, which was present in a container. The Financial Times reported in January that China had been shipping this chemical to Iran. 'The fire was reportedly the result of improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles,' Ambrey, a company specialised in maritime security, told the Associated Press. Another expert told CNN that he also supported the sodium perchlorate theory. However, our team spoke to an Iranian expert in mineral chemistry, who requested anonymity, who disagreed with this theory and saying that it was 'unlikely' that the explosion was caused by sodium perchlorate. Other sources within Iran's leadership remained vague about the causes of the explosion. The president of the Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy at the Iranian parliament told Iranian media outlet Kahabaronline that the 'contents of the containers were for use in the agricultural and medical sectors'. Customs authorities told Iranian media outlets that the 'imported cargo that exploded and caught fire at the Shahid Rajaee port on Saturday (April 26) doesn't have any container numbers or any declaration indicating that it was declared to customs'. It is thus difficult to establish the explosion's causes with certainty. However, this tragedy does highlight another phenomenon: the role of Iranian shipping in the flow of arms from China. Iranian cargo, under American sanctions, departing from China It's not the first time that a mysterious shipment of sodium perchlorate has been reported. In January 2025, the Financial Times cited two Western intelligence sources who said that two Iranian ships, the Golbon and the Jairan, were thought to be transporting this substance from China to Iran. These two container ships flying the Iranian flag are subject to sanctions from the US State Department and the European Union. They both belong to a maritime shipping company called the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, which the US Treasury was the "preferred shipping line for Iranian [Editor's note: nuclear] proliferators and procurement agents". 'Officially, the company has 140 ships,' David Soud, an expert in maritime security and a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said. 'But that doesn't mean that they don't have more unofficially, using various tax schemes.' Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines is directly linked to the Self Sufficiency Jihad Organisation. The US State Department says the 'IRGC Aerospace Force Self Sufficiency Jihad Organisation (ASF SSJO) is involved in Iranian ballistic missile research and flight test launches'. Farzin Nadimi, a specialist in Iranian arms proliferation at the Washington Institute, says that the Self Sufficiency Jihad Organisation plays a key role in Iranian armament: This organisation, which reports to the Revolutionary Guards, is responsible for designing Iranian missile programmes. It essentially carries out reverse engineering: it copies the Chinese technology and launches domestic production of these models. China has been supplying Iran with missiles since the 1980s. The Fateh missiles, which were recently used to strike Israel, are based on Chinese models. Iran also depends on China to produce fuel for the missiles. The Revolutionary Guards haven't started domestic fuel production even though they are technologically capable because the price is too high. So Iran continues to import the substances necessary for producing fuel from China. 'The ship artificially modified its GPS signal when it was at the port where the explosion took place' We were able to track the trajectory of the Golbon, one of the ships. It departed Shahid Rajaee and arrived in Chinese waters in early November 2024. According to navigation data available on the site Global Fishing Watch, the Golbon stayed more than a month in a zone between the Chinese cities of Zhoushan and Taicang. During this time, it carried out a suspicious movement that might possibly indicate spoofing, which is when a ship emits a false signal to hide its real location. Between November 13–23, 2024, while the boat was near Taicang port, Global Fishing Watch picked up the boat's signal indicating a strange, circular trajectory. The cargo ship's signal disappeared entirely between November 24–25, 2024. Soud says that the strange, nearly stationary trajectory emitted by the boat is suspicious and indicates that the boat may have been projecting a fake signal in order to hide its position: It's strange that the cargo ship decided to halt its signal once it was in port. It is possible that the Golbon was anchored near Taicang port between November 13 and 23 while waiting for a place to open up so it could moor at the port itself. However, the trajectory seems a little too geometric for an anchorage. If it is an artificial simulation of its trajectory, then it is possible that it was exchanging merchandise with another ship during this time. But it is impossible to confirm if the ship really was emitting a false signal. If ships transfer cargo in the middle of the ocean, then it is often an indication that they are trying to get around sanctions. In general, transactions that take place between ships placed next to one another are a way to prevent merchandise from being traced. But in this specific case, that would surprise me. Ship-to-ship transfers can be risky. It would be a huge risk for the Iranians to carry out that kind of manoeuvre with an explosive product like sodium perchlorate. Moreover, the boat's trajectory could just indicate a simple anchoring. After a four-day stay in the Chinese port of Zuhai, the Golbon then started making its way back to Iran. On February 12, a Maxar satellite photographed it while it was near the Iranian port of Chabahar. After that, the ship docked in Shahid Rajaee for nine days. After Shahid Rajee, the Golbon spent nine days docked at the Emirati Fujairah port before heading to India, where it stopped at Kandla and then Mumbai between February 26 and March 4, 2025. How the cargo ship cut its signal and disappeared It was once the ship headed back to Iran that the ship's trajectory became confusing. On March 13, 2025, when the Golbon was anchored off Chabahar, it suddenly cut its signal. It then reappeared on March 16 farther to the west. In the image below, you can see the trajectory, in orange, and the period when it stopped emitting. Once the ship arrived at Shahid Rajee port, where the explosion took place on April 26, the ship's signal seems to have been garbled on purpose. On March 27, for example, the signal indicated that the ship was on dry land. When a boat's signal indicates that it is on dry land and that its trajectory includes straight lines and angles, then it is a clue that the signal has been modified to hide the ship's activity. It is possible to buy devices that artificially modify the ship's trajectory. Iranian oil tankers use this technique to get around sanctions. In the specific case of Golborn's stopover at Shahid Rajee port, it is unclear why the crew used this technique. We know that the cargo ship was in this port because the sailors didn't jam the signal when the ship was arriving there. There are several hypotheses. The first is that the authorities didn't want foreign analysts who were following the cargo ship's movements to know the exact location where it unloaded its cargo. The second is that the break in signal was due to a human error or perhaps a change in personnel on the boat. The new team might have suddenly wanted to take stricter security precautions. It is impossible to draw a clear conclusion. Nevertheless, satellite images show that the Golbon was unloading at Shahid Rajee port on March 27, even though it appeared to be trying to obscure its position at the port. For Nadimi, the Golbon's trajectory is reminiscent of the methods used by the Revolutionary Guards to import weapons. 'They hide the cargo in the flow of civilian merchandise,' he says. 'Just like with contraband oil, they jam the boat's signals.'
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First Post
28-04-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Iran port explosion caused by Chinese missile fuel: Reports
There are indications that the explosion at the Bandar Abbas port in Iran, which killed dozens and injured dozens, was caused by improper handling of ammonium perchlorate imported from China, a chemical used as a missile fuel. read more In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, a helicopter drops water on the fire after a massive explosion rocked a port near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (Photo: AP) The massive explosion at Iran's Bandar Abbas port was caused by imported missile fuel from China, according to reports. Earlier this year, China had imported ammonium perchlorate from China. The chemical is used a fuel to propel missiles. The sale of ammonium perchlorate to Iran is restricted under US sanctions on the Islamist regime. There are indications that the explosion at the port that killed dozens and injured hundreds was caused by the mishandling of ammonium perchlorate. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD At least 40 people have been killed and 1,200 injured in the explosion, according to Iranian state media. The New York Times and private security company Ambrey reported that the blast was a result of improper storage of ammonium perchlorate at the port. Iran had imported ammonium perchlorate from China this year as a result of the depletion of Iran's stocks after two rounds of aerial battles with Israel. In these battles, Israel had also damaged Iran's missile production capabilities in addition to taking out most of the regime's air defences. Iranian state media have reported that the blast at Bandar Abbas was likely set off by containers of chemicals but did not go into specifics. The media have suggested sabotage. Earlier this year, at least two ships named Golbon and MV Jairan arrived in Iran from China with more than 1,000 tons of ammonium perchlorate at the behest of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran, according to CNN. Shipping Journal Maritime Executive reported that combined cargos of the two ships 'would be sufficient to fuel approximately 250 medium range Khybar-Shikan and Fattah missiles, or shorter range Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, or their Houthi equivalents'. Earlier in January, when the supply of ammonium perchlorate from China to Iran was first reported, former CIA analyst Dennis Wilder told Financial Times that China has a long history of arming Iran dating back to 1980s when it supplied Silkworm anti-ship missiles during the Iran-Iraq war. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Since the early 1990s, China has assisted the Iranian military extensively with its ballistic missile development programme and has provided expertise, technology, parts, and training. China's motivation for secretly assisting Iran today includes clandestinely helping Iran produce missiles for the Russian war effort [in Ukraine], cementing common cause against perceived US hegemonism . . . and Beijing's purchase annually of large amounts of discounted Iranian crude oil,' said Wilder, who is currently an assistant professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Telegraph
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Missile fuel from China ‘caused Iran port explosion'
A deadly explosion at Iran's largest port is believed to have been caused by missile fuel ingredients sent by China. At least 40 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in the blast in Shahid Rajaei port on Saturday, which the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said was likely triggered by containers of chemicals. The agency did not specify which chemicals they were but it was reported in January that China was to ship sodium perchlorate, a common missile fuel component, to Iran after its supplies ran low following attacks on Israel. In February, a ship called the Golbon was reported to have arrived in Iran from China carrying 1,000 tons of ammonium perchlorate, another substance commonly used to make solid rocket fuel. CNN said the vessel was operated by the Iranian Islamic Republic of Shipping Lines and that Tehran's Sufficiency Jihad Organisation, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force, had purchased the chemical. The Maritime Executive, a leading shipping journal, later confirmed the arrival in Iran of the MV Jairan, another ship carrying missile fuel ingredients from China. It reported that Iranian authorities appeared to have taken no measures to hide its movements and that it had left Shanghai with its tracking system switched on. The combined cargos of the MV Jairan and the Golbon 'would be sufficient to fuel approximately 250 medium range Khybar-Shikan and Fattah missiles, or shorter range Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, or their Houthi equivalents', the journal wrote. Iran has denied there were any missile fuel ingredients at the port in Bandar Abbas, 1,000km (621 miles) south of Tehran, at the time of the explosion. Brig Gen Reza Talaei-Nik told state media on Sunday: 'There were no imported or exported shipments related to military use or rocket fuel at the site of the incident.' Saturday's explosion came just hours after Iran and the United States met in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. The US and Iran will continue talks next week in Europe. However, Iran remains sceptical about the outcome. 'Some of our differences are very serious,' Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, told Tehran's state television. 'But can we reach an agreement? I am hopeful but very cautious.' While Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned last week that Iran had enough enriched uranium to produce several nuclear warheads. Foreign conspiracy Some Iranian media suggested on Sunday that the blast was a foreign conspiracy. An editorial in Ham-Mihan read: 'It is improbable that the explosion's concurrence with the start of technical talks between Iran and America is coincidental.' Suggesting Israel could have been behind the blast, it noted that Iran has thousands of people with 'sensitive access' that the Jewish state could potentially recruit as saboteurs. However, Israeli security sources told The Telegraph that the incident was simply an echo of the Beirut Port tragedy in 2020, in which over 200 people were killed by a major explosion. Lebanese authorities said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser – commonly used for ammunition and explosives – had been negligently stored for years. Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon told The Telegraph that video footage analysis of Saturday's blast in Iran was 'very similar to the storage accident we saw at the port of Beirut'. The analysis shows there are 'increasing signs that a chain reaction due to an unsafe discharge caused the ignition and explosion of a shipment of chemicals consistent with sodium perchlorate or ammonium nitrate in units of 25 tons each', he said. Iran has long sourced missile fuel ingredients from its allies. In 2023, Politico Europe revealed Iranian negotiations with Russia and China to purchase ammonium perchlorate, a powerful oxidiser used in solid rocket propellants.
CNN
27-04-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Iran tight-lipped on cause of deadly port explosion amid reports of possible presence of chemicals used to fuel missiles
Iranian authorities have not said what caused the massive explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, killing at least 28 people, but video footage and unconfirmed reports point to the possible presence of a chemical used to make missile propellant. Eyewitness accounts and video indicate chemicals in an area of shipping containers caught fire, setting off a much larger explosion. The death toll spiked sharply following the incident, with 800 others also reported injured. One surveillance video distributed by the Fars news agency shows a small fire beginning among containers, with a number of workers moving away from the scene, before a huge explosion ends the video feed. CNN has previously reported that hundreds of tons of a critical chemical for fueling Iran's ballistic missile program arrived at the port in February. Another shipment is reported to have arrived in March. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted an official as saying the explosion was likely set off by containers of chemicals, but did not identify the chemicals. The agency said late Saturday that the Customs Administration of Iran blamed a 'stockpile of hazardous goods and chemical materials stored in the port area' for the blast. Iran's national oil company said the explosion at the port was 'not related to refineries, fuel tanks, or oil pipelines' in the area. Iranian officials have denied that any military materiel was held at the port. The spokesman for the national security and foreign policy committee of the Iranian parliament, Ebrahim Rezaei, said in a post on X Sunday that according to initial reports the explosion had 'nothing to do with Iran's defense sector.' The blast comes at a time of high tensions in the Middle East and ongoing talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme, but no senior figure in Iran has suggested the blast was an attack. Videos and images from the scene, some of which have been geolocated by CNN, show orange-brown smoke rising from part of the port where containers were stacked. Such a color would suggest a chemical such as sodium or ammonia was involved. Fires at the port were still burning Sunday, although Iranian state media said they were 80% contained. The New York Times reported Sunday that a person 'with ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that what exploded was sodium perchlorate, a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.' CNN cannot confirm what was being stored in the area at the time of the explosion and it is unclear why such chemicals would be kept at port for so long. In February CNN reported that the first of two vessels carrying 1,000 tons of a Chinese-made chemical that could be a key component in fuel for Iran's military missile program had anchored outside Bandar Abbas. The ship, Golbon, had left the Chinese port of Taicang in January loaded with most of a 1,000-ton shipment of sodium perchlorate, the main precursor in the solid propellant that powers Iran's mid-range conventional missiles, according to two European intelligence sources who spoke with CNN. Sodium perchlorate could allow for the production of sufficient propellant for some 260 solid rocket motors for Iran's Kheibar Shekan missiles or 200 of the Haj Qasem ballistic missiles, according to the intelligence sources. The Chinese Foreign Ministry told CNN in February that 'China has consistently abided by export controls on dual-use items in accordance with its international obligations and domestic laws and regulations,' adding that 'sodium perchlorate is not a controlled item by China, and its export would be considered normal trade.'
Voice of America
14-03-2025
- Business
- Voice of America
Exclusive: Second Iranian ship suspected of carrying missile ingredient leaves China
A second Iranian ship that Western news reports have named as part of a scheme to import a missile propellant ingredient from China is heading to Iran with a major cargo load, an exclusive VOA analysis has found. Ship-tracking websites show the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Jairan departed China on Monday, a month later than the expected departure cited by one of the news reports. The Jairan was named in January and February articles by The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNN as one of two Iranian cargo ships Tehran is using to import 1,000 metric tons of sodium perchlorate from China. The three news outlets cited unnamed Western intelligence sources as saying the purported shipment could be transformed into enough ammonium perchlorate — a key solid fuel propellant component — to produce 260 midrange Iranian missiles. The other Iranian cargo ship named in the news reports, the Golbon, completed a 19-day journey from eastern China to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on Feb. 13. During the trip, it made a two-day stop at southern China's Zhuhai Gaolan port and delivered an unknown cargo to Iran, according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic. Both the Golbon and the Jairan are sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as vessels operated by the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, which itself is sanctioned for being what the State Department has called "the preferred shipping line for Iranian proliferators and procurement agents." As the Golbon sailed from China to Iran in late January and early February, the Jairan's automatic identification system transponder — a device that transmits positional and other data as part of an internationally mandated tracking system — reported the vessel as being docked at eastern China's Liuheng Island. In a joint review of the Jairan's AIS data on MarineTraffic and fellow ship-tracking website Seasearcher, VOA and Dubai-based intelligence analyst Martin Kelly of EOS Risk Group determined that the Jairan reported no significant draught change while docked at Liuheng Island through February and into early March. That meant the Iranian vessel was sitting at the almost same depth in the water as when it arrived in eastern China late last year, indicating it had not been loaded with any major cargo since then. The Jairan remained at Liuheng Island until March 3, when it headed south toward Zhuhai Gaolan and docked at the port on March 8. Two days later, the Jairan departed, reporting its destination as Bandar Abbas with an expected arrival of March 26. The Iranian ship also reported a significant draught change upon leaving Zhuhai Gaolan, transmitting data showing it was sitting more than 2 meters deeper in the water and indicating it had taken on a major cargo at the port, Kelly told VOA. As of Friday, local time, the Jairan was in the waters of Indonesia's Riau Archipelago, heading southwest toward the Singapore Strait. The U.S. State Department had no comment on the Jairan's departure from China when contacted by VOA. Iran's U.N. mission in New York did not respond to a similar VOA request for comment, emailed on Tuesday. Last month, the State Department told VOA it was aware of the January news reports by The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal regarding Iran's purported use of the Golbon and Jairan to import sodium perchlorate from China. A spokesperson said the State Department does not comment on intelligence matters but "remains focused on preventing the proliferation of items, equipment, and technology that could benefit Iran's missile or other weapons programs and continues to hold Iran accountable through sanctions." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to the news reports in a Jan. 23 press briefing, asserting that China abides by its own export controls and international obligations and rejects other countries' imposition of what Beijing considers illegal unilateral sanctions. In the past month, Chinese state media have made no reference to the Jairan, while China's social media platforms also have had no observable discussion about the Iranian ship, according to a review by VOA's Mandarin Service. In its Jan. 22 report, The Financial Times cited "security officials in two Western countries" as saying the Jairan would depart China in early February, but it did not leave until March 10. Gregory Brew, a senior Iran analyst at the Eurasia Group, a New York-based political risk consultancy, said Iran may also have wanted to see if the Golbon could complete its voyage from China without being interdicted before sending the Jairan to follow it. "Ships carrying highly sensitive materials related to Iran's missile industry, which is under U.S. sanctions, are at risk of interception, and the Iranians likely are conscious of that," Brew said. Eight Republican U.S. senators led by Jim Risch and Pete Ricketts sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the purported Iran-China chemical scheme dated Feb. 4, urging him to work with global partners of the U.S. "to intercept and stop the shipments currently underway" if the press reports proved accurate. There was no sign of the Golbon being intercepted on its recent China to Iran voyage. Responding to VOA's query about the letter, a U.S. State Department press officer said: "We do not comment on Congressional correspondence." Ricketts' office also did not respond to a VOA inquiry about whether Rubio has responded to the senators' letter. VOA's Mandarin Service contributed to this report.
