At least two people were killed and 14 others wounded in an explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on Saturday. In a separate incident, four people were killed in a gas explosion in the city of Ahvaz, near the border with Iraq. Against the backdrop of heightened tensions with the US, senior Israeli and American officials denied any involvement in the incidents in conversations with Reuters and CNN.
Iran's fire chief, Mohammad Amin Liaghat, said the explosion in Bandar Abbas was caused by a gas leak, despite testimony from residents of the building to the opposition outlet Iran International who said the building had never been connected to a gas infrastructure.
Iranian media reported that Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, was due to travel to Tehran later on Saturday. According to the reports, he had already spoken with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and with Abbas Araghchi, his Iranian counterpart.
At the same time, Tehran's head of crisis management said the authorities had designated 82 metro stations in the capital as shelters and were equipping them accordingly. He added that 300 parking lots and commercial centers in Tehran had also been designated for use as shelters, claiming they would be able to provide energy for 2.5 million residents.
Iran's leadership is currently preparing for a possible American attack. A Western source told Iran International on Friday that the central question now was not whether an attack would take place, but when a suitable operational and political window would open.
Such a window, the source said, could emerge in the coming days or weeks. The source added: "We hope to reach an agreement with Iran. If we reach an agreement, that's good. If we don't, we'll see what happens. But it will be fascinating."
