Iranian port incident traced back to charity overseen by Khamenei

Dubai: The explosion that rocked an Iranian port, killing at least 70 people and injuring more than 1,000 others, had its epicentre at a facility ultimately owned by a charitable foundation overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office.

That foundation, known as Bonyad Mostazafan, faces American sanctions over it helping the 86-year-old Khamenei “to enrich his office, reward his political allies and persecute the regime’s enemies,” the US Treasury has said.

Its top personnel also have direct ties to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees Tehran’s ballistic missile arsenal and operations abroad targetting the Islamic Republic’s enemies. Those associations come as authorities still haven’t offered a cause for the blast Saturday at the Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas. The port reportedly took in a chemical component needed for solid fuel for ballistic missiles — something denied by authorities though local reports now increasingly point toward a mysterious, highly explosive cargo being delivered there.

A bonyad, the Farsi word for “foundation,” wields tremendous power in Iran. The bonyads take their root in foundations set up by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during his rule. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the shah, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini set up the bonyads to manage those assets, as well as companies seized from supporters of the shah and religious minorities, like the Baha’i and Jews. Bonyad Mostazafan, or the “Foundation of the Oppressed,” is said to be the largest in Iran.