BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds Washington's first high-level meeting with Russia on March 6 since President Barack Obama took office in January, seeking to ease tensions and win help over Afghanistan.

No major decisions are expected at the talks over dinner in Geneva, but the Obama administration hopes to improve relations after a post-Cold War low during George W. Bush's presidency.

When Russia sent tanks and troops into Georgia last year, the Bush administration sought to isolate Moscow, particularly in international institutions like NATO which suspended ties.

"I don't think you punish Russia by stopping conversations with them," Clinton told reporters in Brussels on March 5.

"I think that what we have to be is willing to vigorously press the differences that we have, while seeking common ground wherever possible," said Clinton, who has already exchanged letters with Lavrov over a wish to start a new chapter in ties.

Russia is cautiously optimistic about the meeting, Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying.

"We await with cautious optimism the outcome of these talks," Interfax quoted the spokesman as saying.

In a decision likely to help the atmosphere, NATO agreed on March 5 to resume formal ties with Russia in hopes of securing greater support for the alliance's Afghan military campaign.

The Obama administration has said it wants to "press the reset button" and has focused on Afghanistan, missile defense, nuclear disarmament, and Iran as areas for possible movement.

The Kremlin says it is ready to widen cooperation, and Russian officials believe that unless the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is contained, Islamist militancy could spread through former Soviet states in Central Asia and reach Russia.

Washington is considering nearly doubling the size of its military presence in Afghanistan and wants to secure alternative supply routes as it faces closure of an air base in Kyrgyzstan and militants have attacked convoys using routes via Pakistan.

Cutting A Deal?

The United States and Russia have clashed over a missile shield Washington is planning in Europe to deter any attack from a country like Iran, and Clinton says she wants to get talks with Russia over the issue on a "serious track."

The plan to site missiles and a radar tracking station in former Soviet bloc countries Poland and the Czech Republic has angered Moscow, which sees it as a threat.

U.S. officials say Washington has offered to slow down deployment of the shield in exchange for Moscow's help in curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Obama, who has been lukewarm on missile defense, has denied cutting a deal with Moscow. Russia has said it was willing to talk about the shield but saw Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is for atomic weapons, as a separate issue.

An early area of U.S.-Russian cooperation is likely to be on reducing nuclear weapons and replacing a strategic arms treaty, START, which is set to expire at the end of this year.

Russia hopes Washington will revive a bilateral civilian nuclear pact, potentially worth billions of dollars in trade, which was withdrawn from the U.S. Congress over Georgia.

Clinton could capitalize on a wave of goodwill that had flowed from Obama's election, said a senior U.S. official.

"The new administration has much more political juice as it leans forward and tries to re-engage the Russians and because of that it will have much more political capital," said the official, asking not to be identified.

Russia might recalculate tactics because of the need for cooperation over the global economic crisis, said the official.

But Russia expert Steve Pifer said domestic pressures could lead to Moscow dragging its feet on improving ties.

"There is always the idea in Russia that there is a foreign enemy and this distracts from domestic woes," said Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

Yuras Zyankovich, a US citizen who was born and raised in Belarus, has been released from prison in Belarus after more than 3 1/2 behind bars, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced via social media on April 30.

Zyankovich, a lawyer, was arrested in April 2021 and later sentenced to 11 years in a high-security prison for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government of Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko.

The charges, widely seen as politically motivated, were based on accusations from Belarusian and Russian state intelligence services. Human rights organizations, including Vyasna, had declared Zyankovich a political prisoner.

He went on to receive two additional sentences: six months in 2022 for online comments and again in 2024 to two more years after a conviction for "malicious disobedience" of prison rules.

Zyankovich reportedly endured hunger strikes, harassment, and health issues during his imprisonment in Mahilyou, a prison in Belarus notorious for its harsh conditions.

Zyankovich, the only defendant in his case to plead guilty and express remorse, was tried alongside Belarusian opposition figures Ryhor Kastusyou and Alyakandr Fyaduta. Kastusyou, who has cancer, was released in 2024; Fyaduta remains jailed in poor health.

In a statement, Zyankovich's wife, Alena Dzenisavets, expressed profound relief and gratitude.

"It took 1,480 days, but he survived and is on his way home to me and to America," she said, thanking US President Donald Trump, Rubio, and human rights groups for their unwavering support.

Zyankovich appeared frail in a state TV broadcast earlier this year, pleading for help from US leaders. The footage was condemned as coerced propaganda.

Zyankovich's release comes amid a troubling backdrop of ongoing repression in Belarus, where over 1,300 political prisoners remain jailed, and more than 65,000 people have been arrested since the disputed 2020 election.

The United States continues to urge its citizens to avoid travel to Belarus.

Less that three weeks earlier, Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina, who was imprisoned in Russia for donating $51 to a US-based Ukrainian aid charity, was released from a Russian prison after a prisoner swap for Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen who allegedly exported sensitive microelectronics.

Tensions between India and Pakistan continue to mount after a top Pakistani official claimed to have "credible intelligence" that New Delhi is prepared to undertake military action against Islamabad following a militant attack in Kashmir.

"Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends carrying out military action against Pakistan in the next 24-36 hours," Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a video message posted on X in the middle of the night.

There was no immediate response from India to the claim. RFE/RL contacted India's External Affairs Ministry and Defense Ministry for comment, but has yet to receive an answer.

Tarar did not elaborate on what evidence Pakistan had used to make the claim, but added that Islamabad would respond "assuredly and decisively" to any Indian action.

"The international community must remain alive to the reality that the onus of escalatory spiral and its ensuing consequences shall squarely lie with India," Tarar said.

The comments come just a week after militants massacred 26 people in the Himalayan mountain town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. The attack has sparked widespread outrage across India and brought nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan to the brink of conflict.

India quickly accused Pakistan of involvement in the attack and said two of the three suspected militants were Pakistani. Islamabad has flatly denied any responsibility and offered to carry out an investigation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has not issued public comments regarding any imminent plans for military action, but he met with his cabinet late on April 29. Indian media have reported, citing unnamed government sources, that Modi has given the country's armed forces "complete operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets, and timing of our response to the terror attack."

Why Are India And Pakistan On The Brink Of Conflict?

The April 22 terrorist attack was claimed by a little known group that calls itself the Resistance Front, but there has been no way to corroborate the claim made on social media. Indian officials say it is a proxy for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a United Nations-designated terrorist organization.

In the aftermath of the attack, India took a number of nonmilitary measures against Pakistan, suspending a vital water-sharing treaty, downgrading diplomatic relations, and asking Pakistani nationals to leave the country.

Islamabad announced similar retaliatory measures a day later.

The attack took place in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan control the region in part, but each claims it in full.

The two countries have fought three wars over the territory, which is now divided by a de-facto border called the Line of Control (LoC). The region has been hit regularly by militant violence since an armed anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989. Hostilities have claimed tens of thousands of lives over more than three decades.

Praveen Swami, the national-security editor at the Indian daily newspaper The Print, told RFE/RL that the situation remains fluid and both India and Pakistan are currently "prisoners of their own rhetoric."

He adds that there are discussions of potential targeted Indian missile strikes but there are concerns of the reaction it would illicit from Pakistan.

"India will be weighing its options and Modi may be looking to be a hawk, but they are weighing all the options before going for something," Swami said.

Amid the rising tensions and escalating rhetoric, Indian and Pakistani military forces in the region have exchanged gunfire across the LoC repeatedly over the past six days.

"We have reinforced our forces because it is something which is imminent now. So in that situation some strategic decisions have to be taken, so those decisions have been taken," Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters in an April 28 interview.

Pakistani state television also claimed Indian fighter jets conducted patrols near the border in Kashmir under its jurisdiction during the early hours of April 29.

How Are Countries Responding To India-Pakistan Tensions?

The UN warned of potentially "catastrophic" consequences on April 29 if the two countries escalated into war.

"The region and the world cannot afford a confrontation between India and Pakistan, which would be catastrophic for the two countries and for the world as a whole," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antontio Guterres, referring to the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

He said Guterres held separate phone calls with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked the two countries "not to escalate the situation," spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said during an April 29 press briefing.

She said Rubio would speak with both the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers "as early as today or tomorrow."

China, which itself claims control of part of Kashmir and has grown closer to Pakistan in recent years, has also urged restraint.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister last week, saying any conflict between Pakistan and India would "not serve the fundamental interests of each side" and posed a risk to regional security.

Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro late on April 29, killing one person and setting several homes on fire, the regional governor said.

"Dnipro residents remember last night as hell," Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram.

"[A person] was taken out and put on the grass and put in a black bag.... He was killed," a Dnipro resident told RFE/RL at the scene of the attack on the morning of April 30.

Earlier, Russian drones also struck Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said, adding that dozens of people had been injured, including two children and a pregnant woman.

The youngest injured was 5 years old, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"Residential neighborhoods were hit, with apartment buildings, a hospital, and a school damaged," he added.

Meanwhile, a source from the Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) told RFE/RL that it was responsible for a drone strike on a Russian defense manufacturing facility in the Vladimir region.

According to a source in the SBU, the Murom Instrument-Building Plant, located 300 kilometers east of Moscow, specializes in the production of ammunition fuses, components, and products for the Russian Navy and military aviation.

"The Murom Instrument-Building Plant is on the sanctions lists of Ukraine and the EU because it plays a significant role in ensuring military aggression against Ukraine," said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

Earlier, the ASTRA Telegram channel, citing sources in the Russian Emergencies Ministry, reported that a warehouse and a gatehouse of the facility had burned down.

On April 29, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod, reported that a Ukrainian drone strike targeted six localities and hit a vehicle on a highway, killing two and injuring at least three others.

Aleksandr Khinshtein, the governor of the neighboring Kursk region, said drones also struck the town of Rylsk, injuring three people and damaging three apartment buildings, a private house, and a kindergarten.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that fighting in the Kursk region was ongoing as of April 29, according to Russian and Ukrainian sources.

"Russian forces continue efforts to push Ukrainian forces from their limited remaining positions in the area," the report added.

Elsewhere, South Korean lawmakers said on April 30 that about 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of 15,000.

"After six months of participation in the war, the North Korean military has become less inept, and its combat capability has significantly improved," Lee Seong-kweun, a member of South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters.

North Korea has suffered about 4,700 casualties so far, including injuries and deaths, Korean lawmakers said.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry acknowledged the "significant contribution" of North Korean soldiers in the battle to push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region following Kyiv's shock incursion into the border area last year.

On April 30, Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskiy, said Russian forces had increased the intensity of fighting.

Russia is "stubbornly" trying to break through Ukraine's defenses and reach the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Syrskiy added.

In its morning report, the Ukrainian military reported 177 engagements over the past day, most of which occurred near the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, an area less than 20 kilometers from the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Iran’s judiciary said it has executed Mohsen Langarneshin for allegedly spying for Israel and being involved in the high-profile assassination of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) colonel in 2022.

In a statement on April 30, the judiciary described Langarneshin as a “high-ranking spy” for Israel who had “supported several Mossad operations in Iran.”

In addition to his alleged involvement in the killing of IRGC Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in May 2022, Langarneshin was also accused of playing a role in a January 2023 drone attack on a military factory in Isfahan.

Iran’s judiciary also claimed that Langaranshin had met twice with senior Mossad intelligence officers -- once in Georgia and once in Nepal -- and described him as a “highly trained operative” who had undergone “extensive espionage training and was fully capable of carrying out assigned missions.”

Foreign-based Iranian human rights-focused news outlet HRANA said on April 28 that Langarneshin had made three separate requests for a retrial, all of which were rejected.

The HRANA report said he was moved to solitary confinement in the Ghezel Hesar Prison on April 29, a day before his execution, and allowed a final visit with his parents.

His father, Masud Langaranshin, released a video stating that his son had been sentenced to death “without a fair trial” and that the case was riddled with “inconsistencies and legal flaws.”

Quoting a source close to Langaranshin, HRANA claimed that “he was pressured during detention to make forced confessions” implicating him in the assassination of Sayyad Khodaei.

A shadowy figure in the IRGC, Sayyad Khodaei was killed by gunmen outside his home in Tehran. Israeli media have described Sayyad Khodaei as a key figure behind “plots to kill Israelis and Jews” and to attack Jewish interests around the world.

In an annual report on human rights, Amnesty International said on April 29 that Iran "arbitrarily" executed hundreds of people last year as authorities "used the death penalty as a tool of political repression against protesters, dissidents and ethnic minorities."

A federal court has ordered the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to disburse funds for April to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from the broadcaster’s congressional appropriation, amid a fight over winding down operations at a number of US-funded broadcasters.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth granted the temporary restraining order on April 29, writing that it was Congress that "ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL," and that President Donald Trump signed the budget resolution appropriating those funds.

“Today’s ruling ordering USAGM to release one month's worth of the annual funds Congress appropriated to RFE/RL means that our journalists can continue doing their jobs holding dictators and despots accountable," RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said after the ruling.

"We hope to receive April’s late payment quickly because RFE/RL was forced to furlough staff this month and cut back programming to regions crucial to American national security."

The USAGM is an independent government agency that oversees RFE/RL, Voice of America, and other US-funded broadcasters, which together distribute news and information in almost 50 languages to some 361 million people each week.

Hours after an executive order signed by President Trump on March 14 called for the reduction of seven agencies -- including USAGM -- to "the maximum extent consistent with applicable law," the agency claimed to terminate RFE/RL's congressionally appropriated funding for the 2025 budget year that ends on September 30.

RFE/RL called the move unlawful and initiated legal action against the USAGM over the move.

On March 25, the same US court granted an RFE/RL request for a temporary restraining order (TRO), ruling that USAGM had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in terminating RFE/RL's grant.

The next day, the USAGM wrote to RFE/RL saying it was reversing the announcement but that this was "without prejudice to USAGM's authority to terminate the grant."

RFE/RL was forced to seek another TRO in April after funds for that month were not disbursed. It also continues to seek an injunction to ensure the release of the rest of the money due from the grant for the 2025 budget year.

"We will remain in court and look forward to working with USAGM to ensure that we’ll be paid for the rest of the fiscal year,” Capus said.

RFE/RL reaches nearly 50 million people across 23 countries -- including Belarus, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia -- as it seeks to provide independent, unbiased news in 27 languages.

Media rights advocates have called the move to gut the USAGM "outrageous," saying it hands a win to authoritarian regimes around the world.

The Committee to Protect Journalists warned on April 1 that it also puts many journalists who worked for broadcasters such as RFE/RL at risk.

"USAGM-affiliated journalists face serious threats, imprisonment, and persecution in their home countries due to their reporting on politically sensitive issues," it wrote in a letter also signed by PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, and others that urges US Congress to take "immediate action" to protect journalists who worked for publicly funded outlets.

"Protecting them...is a moral obligation and a vital stand for press freedom and democratic values."

The total budget request for the USAGM for fiscal year 2025 was $950 million to fund all of its operations and capital investments.

This includes media outlets such as RFE/RL, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio Marti), Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), and the Open Technology Fund.

Kyiv and Washington are on the verge of signing a deal giving the United States preferred access to Ukraine's mineral resources, including rare earth materials, as pressure builds on Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace deal to end Europe's longest conflict since World War II.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on April 30 that Washington and Kyiv could sign the deal as soon as "last-minute" issues are smoothed out.

"Our side is ready to sign. The Ukrainians decided last night to make some last-minute changes," Bessent said. "We're sure that they will reconsider that, and we are ready to sign this afternoon if they are."

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal said on state television the agreement, which he characterized as a "real partnership deal," could be signed within the next 24 hours as soon as all the remaining details are finalized.

"This is truly a good, equal, and beneficial international agreement on joint investments in the development and recovery of Ukraine," he said.

What's The Significance Of A Minerals Deal?

Ukraine is looking for the deal to shore up waning US support that has been key in Kyiv's battle to repel Russia's full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.

Shmyhal gave no details of the deal, but Reuters quoted a draft as saying a joint US-Ukrainian fund for reconstruction would be created where half of the profits and royalties accruing to Ukraine from new natural resources permits will form Kyiv's contribution.

In turn, future US military assistance to Ukraine will count toward Washington's contribution to the fund.

Reaching a deal to give US companies access to Ukraine's mineral resources -- so-called rare earth minerals, as well as other valuable resources like lithium, titanium, uranium, and even oil and gas -- has proved difficult, with clashes and acrimony highlighting the talks.

A fiery clash at the White House between Trump and Zelenskyy in front of the international media derailed the talks in late February. Last month signs of discord emerged again when Trump charged that Zelenskyy was looking to back out of the deal while it was still being negotiated and warned that the Ukrainian leader would face "big, big problems" if he did.

Rubio Says Clock Running Out On US Peace Efforts

News of the minerals deal came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that unless Russia and Ukraine put forward specific plans for ending the war in Ukraine, the United States will curtail its efforts to mediate.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce cited Rubio as saying that the time had been reached at which "concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict."

If there is not progress, the United States "will step back as mediators in this process," Bruce told reporters on April 29.

Later that day at a UN Security Council meeting, US diplomat John Kelley blamed Russia for the continuing bloodshed, saying it had "regrettably" carried out high-profile strikes "causing needless loss of life, including of innocent civilians."

"Right now, Russia has a great opportunity to achieve a durable peace," Kelley said, while adding that the burden for ending the war rests with Russia and Ukraine.

"It is up to the leaders of both these countries to decide whether peace is possible. If both sides are ready to end the war, the United States will fully support their path to a lasting peace," he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha on April 30 reiterated Kyiv's "readiness for peace talks in any format as soon as we see that Russia is truly prepared for the difficult path to peace."

Sybiha called Russian President Vladimir Putin's April 28 announcement of a three-day cease-fire on May 8-10 to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War II "peace populism or a brief propaganda cease-fire for the May 9 parade."

"Russia can demonstrate its genuine readiness for peace talks by agreeing to a real ceasefire for at least 30 days. If Russia is ready for a 60- or 90-day cease-fire, we are too," Sybiha said in a statement on X social network.

"Russia must stop talking about its readiness for peace and start acting by agreeing unconditionally to a real and durable cease-fire. When the guns are silent, talks can begin -- in any format that will bring peace," Sybiha added.

Trump said he believes Putin wants to end the war in Ukraine, telling ABC in an interview broadcast on April 29, "I think he does," when asked if Putin wants peace.

Zelenskyy also questioned earlier the need to wait until the anniversary for a cease-fire and called for an "immediate, full, and unconditional" 30-day truce.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on April 30 acknowledged Washington wants to see rapid progress in ending the war in Ukraine but emphasized that the process is highly complex and first requires resolving many outstanding issues.

"We understand that Washington wants quick success in this process," Peskov told reporters. "But at the same time, we hope there is an understanding that the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis is a very complex process, with many questions and details that need to be settled beforehand."

He also stressed any agreement must be made "with Ukraine, not the US," adding that while Washington is acting as a mediator, "we are grateful to the US for these efforts."

Peskov further recalled that Putin recently reiterated his willingness to hold direct talks with Ukraine, but "Kyiv has not responded" to this offer.

Trump and his envoys have been pressing Ukraine to agree to a cease-fire. At the same time the US president has been urging Russia to stop attacking Ukraine. In the interview with ABC, Trump said he "was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities."

Trump reportedly has suggested an official recognition of Russia's takeover of Crimea -- an annexation rejected by nearly all the world -- in addition to land swaps.

Zelenskyy has held firm against formal international recognition of Russia's 2014 takeover of Crimea.

"We all want this war to end in a fair way -- with no rewards for Putin, especially no land," Zelenskyy said on April 29 in a videoconference at a summit organized by Poland.

At the Security Council, France and Britain praised US mediation, while criticizing Russia, which launched more drone attacks late on April 29, hitting the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv.

Jean-Noel Barrot, France's minister for Europe, said Kyiv had demonstrated goodwill and called Putin the sole obstacle to a cease-fire by seeking Ukraine's "capitulation."

Russia's UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, rejected allegations that Russian forces had targeted civilians and accused Ukraine of using civilians or human shields by positioning air defenses in heavily populated areas.

He accused Kyiv of recklessly rejecting balanced US peace proposals and targeting Russian civilians, while saying it was increasingly difficult for Western backers of Zelenskyy's government to conceal its "brutal, misanthropic, and Nazi essence."

Mariana Betsa, a Ukrainian deputy foreign minister, told the Security Council that Russia wants Ukraine to surrender and Kyiv could not accept peace at any cost.

She said Ukraine would never recognize any temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as Russian, including Crimea, which Moscow has held since 2014.

With reporting by Reuters

Pakistan says it is readying international legal action against India for suspending a vital water-sharing agreement between the two nuclear-armed rivals as tensions mount following a militant attack in the disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistani Minister for Law and Justice Aqeel Malik said Islamabad is working on plans for at least three different legal options, including raising the issue at the World Bank, the facilitator for the six-decade old Indus Waters Treaty.

"Legal strategy consultations are almost complete," Malik said in an interview with Reuters late on April 28.

After an April 22 militant attack in Kashmir that killed 26 tourists, all but one of whom were Indian nationals, New Delhi said that it was suspending its participation in the water treaty that splits the Indus River and its tributaries between the two neighbors and governs most of the water used in Pakistani agriculture.

'Act Of War'

India has accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, though it has stopped short of putting direct blame on Islamabad for the attack.

Islamabad has denied any role in the attack and warned that any Indian attempt to stop or divert the flow of water between them would be considered an "act of war."

The water treaty now looks to be a potential flashpoint in the unpredictable situation between the nuclear-armed neighbors that was sparked by the militant attack.

Malik said that Islamabad would likely pursue more than one path in taking legal action, including at the Permanent Court of Arbitration or at the International Court of Justice in the Hague where it could allege that India has violated the 1960 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

He added that the Pakistani government was also considering raising the issue at the United Nations Security Council.

"All the options are on the table and we are pursuing all appropriate and competent forums to approach," Malik said.

The treaty became necessary after 1947, when India and Pakistan were partitioned by Britain and became independent countries. The water agreement, however, took a decade to negotiate and was signed in 1960, with the World Bank as a mediator.

Acute Water Shortages

The treaty governs the distribution and use of waters from the Indus River and its tributaries, which feed 80 percent of Pakistan's irrigated agriculture and its hydropower.

Suspending the deal would put major pressure on Pakistan, which has been battling acute water shortages, partly because of extreme weather events.

In March, Pakistan’s water regulator warned that Punjab and Sindh, the country’s key agricultural provinces, could already face water shortfalls of as much as 35 percent during the final phase of the current crop season.

Other issues may arise during the heavy rains of the coming monsoon season. India could decide to release surplus water from the eastern rivers without prior notification, potentially triggering floods.

Despite a history of tensions and war, the treaty has managed to survive through the years, withstanding threats from New Delhi to pull out of the agreement during previous times of high-tensions.

"We will ensure no drop of the Indus River's water reaches Pakistan," India's water resources minister, Chandrakant Raghunath Paatil, said on X on April 27.

Halting the flow of water is not a straightforward process, experts and officials from both countries have said.

The treaty stipulated that India was only to build hydropower plants without significant storage or dams on the three rivers allocated to Pakistan, preventing New Delhi from immediately stopping water sharing.

Tensions continue to mount since the attack in Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan rule in part but claim in full.

The two countries continue to exchange small-arms fire in the region and both governments suspended trade ties, limited diplomatic contact, and suspended some visas following the attack.

On April 29, India claimed both sides exchanged fire, the fifth consecutive day of such reports. State broadcaster Radio Pakistan said the Pakistani military had shot down an Indian drone, calling it a violation of its airspace.

The death toll from a massive explosion at Iran’s key Shahid Rajaei port has hit 70, local authorities said, as the interior minister blamed “negligence” for the incident, which injured more than 1,000 people.

Eskandar Momeni told Iranian state television late on April 28 that “noncompliance with safety precautions and negligence” had caused the incident, though it was not immediately clear what started the fire at the hazardous and chemical materials storage depot.

Momeni said several “culprits have been identified and summoned” but did not share further details.

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the director of the crisis management office in the southern Hormozgan Province where the port is located, told state television that most of the injured had already been released from hospital.

On April 27, a day after the explosion happened, Hossein Zafari, a spokesman for Iran's crisis management organization, appeared to blame the blast on poor storage of chemicals in containers at the port.

Open-source data suggests that Iran took shipments of chemical ingredients from China used in missile fuel at the port in February and March. However, an Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman has denied that any cargo used for military use, including missile fuel, was being stored at the blast site.

The New York Times quoted an unnamed source with ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as saying the substance that exploded was sodium perchlorate, a key component in solid missile fuel.

Amid mounting criticism of officials over the incident, renowned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi called for a “free and transparent referendum under international supervision to restore sovereignty to the people.”

In a post on Instagram, Panahi described the explosion as a symbol of “the collapse of a regime that has led Iran into ruin for nearly half a century.”

Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro late on April 29, killing one person and setting homes on fire, the regional governor said.

"There are a number of fires in the city," Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram shortly after attack.

"Dnipro residents remember last night as hell," Lysak added later.

Russian drones earlier on April 29 struck Kharkiv, Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said, adding that 45 people had been injured, including two children and a pregnant woman.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a drone hit a private house and another one fell near a medical facility.

The governor of Russia's border Belgorod region said a Ukrainian drone slammed into a car on a highway, killing two people and injuring three. Vyacheslav Gladkov said five people were injured in cars in three incidents in areas near the Ukrainian border.

Drones later attacked six localities in the Belgorod region, Gladkov said on Telegram. An apartment building, a house and a business were damaged, but no casualties were reported.

The governor of the neighboring Kursk region, Aleksandr Khinshtein, said drones attacked the town of Rylsk, injuring three people and damaging three apartment buildings, a private house and a kindergarten.

The reports could not be independently verified.

The Kremlin earlier on April 29 rejected a call from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a 30-day cease-fire after the Ukrainian leader criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement of a three-day pause in fighting to coincide with annual Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.

Putin called for the 72-hour truce to take place on May 8-10 as Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Zelenskyy questioned the need to wait until then for a cease-fire, saying it was a move "just to provide Putin with silence for his parade" and called for an "immediate, full, and unconditional" 30-day truce.

"We all want this war to end in a fair way -- with no rewards for Putin, especially no land," Zelenskyy said in a videoconference at a summit organized by Poland. Moscow holds about 20 percent of Ukraine's territory after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A proposal from the United States for an unconditional cease-fire, which Ukraine had agreed to, was also still possible, Zelenskyy reiterated.

"Russia knows exactly what it needs to do and how to respond: to genuinely cease fire," he said.

Ukraine's foreign minister said earlier that the announcement by the Kremlin on April 28 was disingenuous and said it should begin immediately.

Russia's response on April 29, however, was to reject the longer "immediate" cease-fire, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying several issues first needed to be resolved.

"Without answers to these questions, it is difficult to enter into a long-term cease-fire," he said.

It's the second time this month that the Kremlin has called for a halt to fighting. A proposal for the Easter holiday earlier this month was largely ignored as Russia and Ukraine continued to batter one another.

On the night of April 28-29, Russia launched a drone attack on civilian areas in Ukraine, killing a child, according to officials.

In his evening address on April 29, Zelenskyy again called for a full and unconditional cease-fire.

"They must take clear steps to end the war, and we insist that an unconditional and complete cease-fire must be the first step," he said.

The United States has been pressing for “a complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said on April 29.

"We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict," Bruce told reporters in what she said was a message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "If there is not progress, we will step back as mediators in this process," Bruce quoted Rubio as saying.

US President Donald Trump had vowed to end the war in his first 24 hours back in the White House. But the goal remains elusive as he celebrates 100 days in office.

The United States reportedly has suggested to freeze the front lines and accept the Russian control of the Crimean Peninsula that it seized in 2014. But Zelenskyy has held firm against formal international recognition of Russia's 2014 takeover of Crimea.

Though Trump has opened direct talks with Moscow, Russian officials have sought to broaden the negotiations to include not just the Ukraine conflict, but the wider bilateral relationship between Washington and Moscow.

Russia and Ukraine agreed on a limited cease-fire in March, but the two sides have continued to attack one another. On the battlefield, Russian forces have pressed their advantage -- in men and in weaponry -- to grind down Ukraine's troops.

Over the weekend on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican, Trump had his first face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy since February, when Oval Office talks imploded in acrimony.

Trump said the meeting had gone well, but he added that he thought Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea Peninsula to Russia as a concession.

Trump later called on Putin to "stop shooting" and agree to a peace deal.

Experts say Putin has been dragging out talks because his forces have the momentum on the battlefield and a cease-fire at the current line of contact would leave him short of one of his main goals: fully capturing the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson.

They add that ceding territory to Russia would be politically and constitutionally impossible for Zelenskyy. Ukrainian citizens and lawmakers appear strongly opposed to the idea.

Russia wants any peace deal to recognize its control of nearly 20 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea. It also wants Ukraine to be de-militarized and kept out of NATO. Moscow has also rejected Kyiv's demand for a Western peacekeeping force to monitor any cease-fire agreement.

US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire), said on April 29 that recognizing "Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea would invite additional aggression from Moscow and Beijing."

"I have endeavored to give President Trump the space to negotiate a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which is a goal we both share," said Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"However, President Trump and his team have fatally mismanaged these negotiations -- offering concession after concession to Russia, throwing away our leverage and fracturing the united front with our allies that is critical to ending this war," she said.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

PRAGUE -- The European Union is considering moving along in the accession process with Moldova while leaving Ukraine behind as Hungary continues to block Kyiv's membership drive.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview on April 28 during a visit to Prague, EU Enlargement Minister Marta Kos said she couldn't rule out a "decoupling" of the two countries as soon as June, when a raft of enlargement decisions is expected to be made in Brussels.

"We are discussing already with the member states what to do because no member state is against starting to open the first cluster (of accession chapters) with Moldova," she said, noting Hungary's opposition to Ukraine's accession.

Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, and Ukraine, torn apart by more than three years of war sparked by Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion, have so far proceeded hand-in-hand in the EU accession process.

Both applied for membership of the bloc shortly after thousands of Russian troops crossed over into Ukraine in early 2022. Last year the 27 EU member states gave both the green light to start accession talks.

The negotiations with Kyiv, however, have stalled with Budapest putting up a road block while it presses for improved rights of the Hungarian-speaking minority in Ukraine.

With all EU enlargement decisions needing unanimity, Hungary can effectively keep Ukraine out of the bloc as long as it deems necessary.

Decoupling countries vying for entrance into the bloc has been done before.

In September 2024, the EU decided to start negotiations with Albania while leaving North Macedonia behind as Skopje remained entangled in bilateral disputes with the EU member state Bulgaria over minority rights.

Could Moldova Join The EU This Decade?

During the interview, Kos, who became enlargement commissioner in December 2024, said there was even a possibility Moldova could become a member state by the time her mandate finishes in 2029.

She said it would be considered a "failure if we will not get any newcomers into the EU in the times of the present European Commission."

Confident that both Western Balkan frontrunners Albania and Montenegro could become EU countries in the upcoming three or four years, Kos also left the door open for Chisinau as well.

"Moldova is really a good student in the whole group. They really feel this historical moment," she said.

"This is something which probably we haven't seen before, because it is a peace project, because they want to belong to the community of values and democracy. They are willing to do everything possible," she said.

Kos said it was regretful that Budapest is playing politics with Ukraine's membership, with Hungary going as far as holding a consultative referendum on Ukrainian EU membership in which the Moscow-friendly Fidesz government has spoken out against Kyiv joining the club.

"Ukraine has done enough, I can tell you from my personal experience because I was facilitating the dialogue between Hungary and Ukraine. And there were many points, and Ukraine is willing to fulfill all of them. But this is not enough for Hungary," Kos said.

Is The EU Talking To Georgia Again?

In a nod to another accession candidate that has seen its candidacy run aground, Kos hinted it may be time to slowly start re-engaging with the government in Tbilisi.

Georgia also applied for EU membership in 2022 and received candidate status a year later.

But parliamentary elections in October, which Western observers noted were marred by irregularities, and controversial legislation such a foreign agent law similar to one Russia has used to stifle civil society, forced Brussels to pause the bid of the small South Caucasus republic.

Brussels also decided to freeze EU funds earmarked for the government, reinstate visa requirements for Georgian diplomatic passport holders, and suspended high-level contacts.

"The easiest way is not to talk.... But we talk to many other countries in the world which do not have candidate status," Kos said, noting that Turkey, which has had its candidate status frozen since 2019, has resumed high-level dialogue.

"We had one [discussion] on the economy, and we are planning another one on migration," she said.

When pressed if she thought something similar was on the cards for Tbilisi, she added: "We should take care, perhaps not on the highest level at the beginning or perhaps starting at the lower level, but then to see how we could explore this."

Iran's top diplomat has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to dictate US policy toward Iran after the premier renewed his call for the full dismantlement of Tehran's nuclear program.

Iranian and US negotiators concluded a third round of indirect talks over Iran's nuclear program on April 26, with a fourth round scheduled for May 3, likely in a European country.

Speaking in Jerusalem a day after the talks, Netanyahu said any deal with Iran must aim for the complete dismantling of the nuclear program and also address Tehran's missile capabilities.

"The real deal that works is the deal which removes Iran's capacity to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said, adding that a good agreement should also "bring in the prevention of ballistic missiles."

Writing on X, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said it was "striking…how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran."

The Iranian diplomat maintained that his country was "strong and confident enough" to "thwart any attempt by malicious external actors to sabotage its foreign policy or dictate its course."

"We can only hope our US counterparts are equally steadfast," he added.

Netanyahu's comment came after a deadly explosion hit Iran’s Shahid Rajaei port, killing at least 46 people and injuring more than 1,000.

Some speculate that the explosion was linked to a shipment of a chemical ingredient used to make ballistic missile fuel, though Iran denies any sort of fuel was being stored in the container terminal.

Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the sharp orange color of the initial fire was consistent with burning sodium perchlorate, a component used in rocket fuel. Open-source data suggests Iran took shipments of the chemical at the port earlier this year.

According to various reports, the Donald Trump administration previously held Netanyahu back from launching strikes on Tehran's nuclear facilities. However, the US president has said he himself would be "leading the pack" toward war with Iran if he cannot clinch a deal.

Ali Shamkhani, a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader and former national security adviser, warned on April 28 that Israel would face "unimaginable consequences" if it attacked Iran's nuclear sites.

"The question is: Are these threats the result of Israel acting on its own, or are they coordinated with Trump to push forward negotiations with Iran?" he wrote on X.

Russian prosecutors have charged a man in connection with a Moscow suburb car bombing that killed a Russian general, alleging he had been paid by Ukrainian intelligence services.

The Investigative Committee on April 27 said Ignat Kuzin faced terrorism charges for the killing of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik. He was the second general to have been killed in a bomb attack in the Moscow region in the past six months.

The committee released a courtroom video showing a man, wearing a black hospital mask and a black-hooded sweatshirt appearing in a glass cage as a judge ordered him held pending further investigation.

Ukraine has said nothing about the April 24 bombing that killed Moskalik, who served on the General Staff's planning directorate and was reportedly involved in planning Russia's all-out invasion in 2022.

The Federal Security Service announced Kuzin's arrest on April 25, alleging he was a resident of Ukraine and that Ukrainian security services had provided him with an explosive device that he then planted in a car in the Moscow suburb of Balashikha.

The service claimed the bomb was detonated remotely from Ukraine as Moskalik passed by.

The incident followed a similar killing in December.

Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov died when a bomb planted in an electric scooter on a sidewalk detonated as he exited his Moscow apartment building. Kirillov headed Russia's military unit that oversaw defenses against nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks.

Russian officials also alleged Ukraine was behind that bombing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a three-day cease-fire in the Ukraine war to coincide with the annual celebrations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Ukraine's foreign minister suggested the call, announced by the Kremlin on April 28, was disingenuous, and proposed a cease-fire beginning immediately.

It's the second time in the month that the Kremlin has called for halt to fighting. A proposal for the Easter holiday earlier this month was largely ignored as Russia and Ukraine continued to batter one another, including a recent series of massive air attacks by Moscow across Ukraine.

Highlighting the strikes, which have killed several civilians, including children, family and friends gathered on April 28 at a funeral for 17-year-old Danylo Khudia, who died in a Russian strike on Kyiv four days earlier. The funeral was also a remembrance for Khudia's parents, who were among at least 12 people killed in the attack.

The cease-fire would coincide with Victory Day, one of Russia's -- and Ukraine's -- most-revered annual observances. May 9 marks the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

As he has every year of his presidency, Putin will preside over a Red Square military parade that celebrates the Soviet role in defeating Germany. In recent years, he has used the occasion to whitewash Soviet and Russian history, while also bashing the West.

Responding to the Kremlin proposal, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called for a cease-fire to begin immediately.

"Why wait until May 8? If the fire can be ceased now and since any date for 30 days-- so it is real, not just for a parade," he said in a post to X. " Ukraine is ready to support a lasting, durable, and full cease-fire. And this is what we are constantly proposing, for at least 30 days."

The celebration occurs as the Russian invasion of Ukraine -- now the largest land war in Europe since World War II -- continues unabated in its fourth year. Russia's casualties, killed or wounded, now total more than all the casualties it suffered in all the conflicts it has fought since 1945.

Efforts to reach a bilateral cease-fire, or even a broader peace deal, kicked into higher gear as US President Donald Trump took office in January, vowing to end fighting within 24 hours.

His predecessor, Joe Biden, refused to engage in substantive talks with Moscow so long as the invasion continued.

Though Trump has opened direct talks with Moscow, Russian officials have sought to broaden the negotiations to include not just the Ukraine conflict, but wider bilateral relationship between Washington and Moscow.

Russia and Ukraine agreed on a limited cease-fire in March, but the two sides have continued to attack one another. On the battlefield, Russian forces have pressed their advantage -- in men and in weaponry -- to grind down Ukraine's troops.

Over the weekend on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican, Trump had his face-to-face meeting with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy since February, when Oval Office talks imploded in acrimony.

Trump said his meeting with Zelenskyy had gone well, but he added that he thought Zelenskyy is ready to give up Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula to Russia as a concession -- something the Ukrainian leader has long stated he would never do.

Trump later called on Putin to "stop shooting" and agree to a peace deal.

"Well, I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal," Trump told reporters.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt echoed that assertion on April 28.

Trump "wants to see a permanent cease-fire. I understand Vladimir Putin, this morning, offered a temporary cease-fire," she said. "The president has made it clear he wants to see a permanent cease-fire first to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed."

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said his conversation with Trump represented a "very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results."

Experts say Putin has been dragging out talks because his forces have the momentum on the battlefield and a cease-fire at the current line of contact would leave him short of one of his main goals: fully capturing the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson.

They add that ceding territory to Russia would be politically and constitutionally impossible for Zelenskyy. Ukrainian citizens and lawmakers appear strongly opposed to the idea.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal to end the Russian invasion was "closer."

Russia and Ukraine "are closer in general than they have been anytime in the last three years, but it's still not there," Rubio said in an interview with NBC News broadcast on April 27.

But Trump's critique of Putin also came shortly after he made his most definitive statement to date about the need for Ukraine to cede territory.

He said in a Time magazine interview published on April 25 that "Crimea will stay with Russia."

Russia wants any peace deal to recognize its control of nearly 20 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea. It also wants Ukraine to be de-militarized and kept out of NATO. Moscow has also rejected Kyiv's demand for a Western peacekeeping force to monitor any cease-fire agreement.

European officials and US Democrats have pushed back against some US proposals.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on April 27 said Kyiv should not agree to US proposals that would include giving up land to Russia.

Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said it would be a mistake for the United States to consider the possibility of recognizing the occupied Crimea as Russian territory as part of a peace agreement.

"Crimea is Ukraine," Kallas said, adding the EU will never recognize the peninsula as part of Russia.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

Pakistani security forces said they killed dozens of militants attempting to cross into the country from Afghanistan, even as its troops separately continued to exchange gunfire with the India military near Kashmir amid skyrocketing tensions in the region.

Islamabad did not directly blame India for the incursion of militants from Afghanistan, but it said the fighters had been sent to carry out terrorist attacks by their "foreign masters."

Some Pakistani officials suggested, without providing evidence, that nuclear-rival India encouraged the insurgents' actions to divert the attention of Pakistan's military from the brewing crisis in Kashmir.

"Such actions by [the insurgents], at a time when India is leveling baseless accusations against Pakistan, clearly implies on whose cues [the fighters are] operating," the Pakistani Army said in a statement.

The military said it killed 71insurgents entering from Afghanistan on April 27 and claimed that intelligence reports indicated the militants were "Khwarij" -- a phrase the government uses for Tehrik-e Taliban, otherwise known as the Pakistani Taliban.

"On the nights of April 25-26 and 26-27, movement of a large group of Khwarij, who were trying to infiltrate through Pakistan-Afghanistan border, was detected by the security forces in general area Hassan Khel, North Waziristan district," the military said.

"Own troops effectively engaged and thwarted their attempt to infiltrate…; A large cache of weapons, ammunition, and explosives was also recovered."

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told reporters the incident represented the largest number of "terrorists" killed in a single day.

"We had information that the foreign masters of these terrorists are asking them to enter Pakistan as soon as possible" to undertake attacks.

Reuters quoted local police officials on April 28 as saying security forces had detained around 500 people for questioning after a search of some 1,000 houses and forests in a hunt for militants in Indian Kashmir.

What's Behind The New India-Pakistan Escalation?

Tensions have soared in the region between Pakistan and its bitter rival and neighbor India, both nuclear-armed nations.

The latest flareup occurred on April 22 when an attack killed mostly Indian nationals in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India has accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, but the Pakistani government denies it was behind the attack that killed 26 civilians.

New Delhi and Islamabad have since carried out tit-for-tat punishments following the incident, including downgrading diplomatic and trade ties, closing the main border crossing, and revoking visas for each other's nationals.

On April 27, Pakistani and Indian troops exchanged fire near Kashmir's Line of Control for a third night in a row.

The Pakistani government has said it would consider it "an act of war" if India followed through on a threat to block the flow of crucial rivers as punishment for the deadly incident.

The United States on April 27 said it was in touch with India and Pakistan and urged them to seek a "responsible solution" to the crisis.

"This is an evolving situation and we are monitoring developments closely. We have been in touch with the governments of India and Pakistan at multiple levels," a State Department spokesperson told Reuters.

In comments to foreign media, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tatar claimed that India blamed Islamabad for the tourist attack to distract Pakistan's security forces from their focus on the tensions on its western borders.

He added that Pakistan had "undeniable evidence" of India's support for the Pakistani Taliban and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which is behind multiple attacks in Balochistan. India has denied the charges.

Balochistan has been the site of an insurgency, with separatists seeking independence from Pakistan.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

A massive explosion purportedly linked to a shipment of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant has killed at least 40 people and injured more than 1,000 others in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

Authorities in Iran offered no clear explanation for what caused the April 26 blast at the Shahid Rajaei port, although independent experts said it appeared to be due to the improper storage of sodium perchlorate, a component used in rocket fuel.

On April 27, state media reported that the blast was now under control.

Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian visited with those some of the injured and told local officials that “we have to find out why it happened,” according to the government website.

The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said 190 of those injured remained hospitalized as of April 27.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered security and judicial officials to investigate "any negligence or deliberateness" in the incident.

The Shahid Rajaei port is Iran's busiest, processing up to 80 percent of the country's shipping traffic.

Hossein Zafari, a spokesman for Iran's crisis management organization, appeared to blame the explosion on poor storage of chemicals in containers at the port.

"The cause of the explosion was the chemicals inside the containers," he told Iran's ILNA news agency.

"Previously, the director general of crisis management had given warnings to this port during their visits and had pointed out the possibility of danger," Zafari said.

According to the private security firm Ambrey, the port had received a shipment of “sodium perchlorate rocket fuel” in March, which was going to be used to replenish Iran’s missile stocks after being depleted by its direct attacks on Israel during the war with Hamas -- which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union -- in the Gaza Strip.

Tehran has not acknowledged taking the shipment, but ship-tracking data obtained by the Associated Press shows vessels believed to be carrying the chemical in the vicinity of the port in March.

Iran Launches Investigation After Port Explosion

Iran's Interior Ministry said it launched an investigation into the port explosion.

The April 26 blast happened as Iran and the United States met in Oman for the third round of talks over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. A fourth round is scheduled for May 3, also in Oman.

While no Iranian officials have suggested the explosion was due to an attack, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is leading Tehran's delegation in Oman, said earlier this week that "our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response."

Deadly incidents have hit Iranian energy and industrial infrastructure in recent years -- such as gas explosions and oil refinery fires -- with many blamed on negligence.

Tehran, however, has also blamed some incidents on its arch-foe Israel, which has carried out attacks on Iranian soil targeting the country's nuclear program. Last year, Israel also bombed Iran's air defenses.

Iran accused Israel as being behind a February 2024 attack on Iranian gas pipelines, as well as a major cyberattack on the Shahid Rajaei port in May 2020, causing transport chaos for days after crashing the facility's computer system.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 27 repeated his calls for "all of" Iran's nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled.

"We are in close contact with the United States. But I said, one way or the other, Iran will not have nuclear weapons," Netanyahu told a news conference.

The Shahid Rajaei port is Iran's largest and it mainly handles large volumes of container traffic and also has oil tanks and other petrochemical facilities.

The port is some 1,050 kilometers southeast of the capital Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf where 20 percent of all oil traded globally passes through.

Local officials said that all schools, universities, and offices in Bandar Abbas will be closed on April 27.

With reporting from Reuters and the AP.