Bushehr, Feb 16, IRNA -- Governor General of the southern province of Bushehr Esmaeel Tabadar here on Wednesday has denied any attack on Iran`s nuclear and oil facilities in the province.
Tabadar told IRNA that foreign media had in a targeted move falsely mentioned the sound of a blast heard from a mountainous region 220 kilometers north of Bushehr nuclear power plant before noon Wednesday as an attack on the power plant. He said that although the Wednesday pre-noon blast in the mountainous region east of Daylam port in northern Bushehr province was an insignificant issue, military experts immediately headed to the region aboard a helicopter to identify the cause of the incident. He added that the experts had strongly rejected any military invasion of the site.
The official reiterated that the site of the explosion had been a mountainous region in the north of Bushehr province, which is uninhabited.
An informed source said the minor explosion might have have been set off in a mountainous region east of Daylam port 220 kilometers north of Bushehr before noon on Wednesday by Oil Ministry contractors, while attempting to clear the ground for implementing oil projects. He said the use of dynamite to clear the rough mountainous terrain for roads to implement oil projects is a usual procedure.
I think this is the best "consequences" or "lessons learned" summary. The market fell on the initial news of war. Reminder: the S&P500 managed an 11% rally on the news of war in March 2003.
U.S. Stock Futures Sell Off After Iran Blast News
Wed February 16, 2005 8:49 AM GMT-05:00
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures fell sharply on Wednesday following news reports of an explosion in Iran that state television there attributed to a missile fired by an unknown aircraft.
"This explosion basically sent chills down the spines of futures traders," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Alaron Trading Corp in Chicago. "Oil prices reacted immediately and rallied up to the highs and this caused a corresponding drop in stock prices."
S&P 500 futures were down 7 points, below fair value accounting for interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract.
Dow Jones industrial index futures were down 48 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 8 points.
Posted by EBW at February 16, 2005 11:47 AM | TrackBackWhat's FEBA stand for?
[front edge battle area. in the present moment, the western arc of iran, but with the same axis taken by the iraqis in the iraq-iran war (opening weeks), the littoral area and straits of hormuz (war of the tankers), and then there's the baluchistan boarder (see "is pakistan?" over the past few weeks), and the herat front. tbd is what the caspian and kurdish areas of operations look like. ebw]
Posted by: Ronit at February 16, 2005 03:47 PM