'Minor' Fire Breaks Out at Oil Facility In Southern Iran

Oil refinery in Iran - File/Reuters
Oil refinery in Iran - File/Reuters
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'Minor' Fire Breaks Out at Oil Facility In Southern Iran

Oil refinery in Iran - File/Reuters
Oil refinery in Iran - File/Reuters

A fire that broke out at an oil export facility in southern Iran was brought under control without causing any damage, according to local media.

"A fire has occurred in an open oil channel leading to the export port in the city of Mahshahr," Fars news agency reported after the Sunday incident.

Thick smoke filled the sky over the port, the agency stated.

Mahshahr is located in Khuzestan, an oil-rich province bordering Iraq.

The Tasnim agency described the fire as "minor", adding that there was no "human or financial loss".

A security manager at the port, quoted by the Rokna news website, said the fire was caused by technical failure in a lighting system near the open channel.

Mahshahr Governor Fereydoun Bandari said "firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to oil tanks at the export port", according to Fars.

The cause of the incident is under investigation, he added.

It occurred following weeks of protests in Iran after the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, three days after her arrest by vice police.

In a separate incident in the same city, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said Sunday its forces had killed an "element hostile to the revolution" after an attack on a military base in Mahshahr.

"The forces fired on two terrorists on motorbikes in order to protect the headquarters, killing one of them while steps were taken to identify and arrest the second person," the IRGC said in a statement.

Iran has the world's second largest gas reserves, after Russia, and the world's fourth largest oil reserves, but is under strict US sanctions which have restricted exports and isolated it from the global financial system.



Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
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Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the US ally hand it over.

In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China.

The post was an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory. It also underlines an expected shift in US diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.

The United States largely built the canal and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But the US government fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.

"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.

"It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."

The Panamanian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.