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- By RFE/RL
COVID-19: One Iranian 'Dying Every 10 Minutes'; Romania Urges Expats To Stay Away
The global coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 230,000 people worldwide, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.
Here's a roundup of developments in RFE/RL's broadcast countries.
Iran
The death toll from the coronavirus in Iran continues to rise as the worst-affected country in the Middle East prepares for scaled-down celebrations of Norouz, the Persian New Year.
"With 149 new fatalities in the past 24 hours, the death toll from the virus has reached 1,284," Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said on state television on March 19.
“Unfortunately, we have had 1,046 new cases of infection since yesterday,” Raisi added.
Iran has the third-highest number of registered cases after China and Italy.
With the country reeling from the outbreak, officials have recommended that Iranians stay home during the March 20 holiday, a time when hundreds of thousands usually travel to be with friends and relatives.
The government has closed schools at all levels, banned sports and cultural events, and curtailed religious activities to try and slow the spread of the virus.
Kianoush Jahanpour, the head of the Health Ministry's public relations and information center , noted on March 19 that the data on the outbreak means an Iranian dies every 10 minutes from COVID-19, while 50 infections occur each hour of the day.
"With respect to this information, people must make a conscious decision about travel, traffic, transportation, and sightseeing," he added.
Despite the dire circumstances, many Iranians were angered by the temporary closure of Shi'ite sites, prompting some earlier this week to storm into the courtyards of two major shrines -- Mashhad's Imam Reza shrine and Qom's Fatima Masumeh shrine.
Crowds typically pray there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, touching and kissing the shrine. That's worried health officials, who for weeks ordered Iran's Shi'ite clergy to close them.
Earlier on March 19, officials announced that the country wouldn’t mark its annual day celebrating its nuclear program because of the outbreak.
Georgia
The Georgian government has ordered the closure of shops except grocery stores and pharmacies beginning March 20 to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The measure, announced on March 19, also exempts gas stations, post offices, and bank branches. The South Caucasus country has so far reported 40 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, and no deaths.
Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia on March 19 said he would declare a state of emergency, as many countries in Europe already have, if health authorities advise him to do so.
"As of today, I would like to emphasize that there is no need for this. However, in agreement with the president, we have decided, as soon as that need arises, that we will be able to make this decision within a few hours," he said.
Romania
President Klaus Iohannis has urged Romanians working abroad to refrain from traveling home for the Orthodox Easter amid fears of a worsening of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Romania has been under a 30-day state of emergency since March 16.
Iohannis made the appeal in a televised speech on March 19 as thousands of workers returning from Western Europe were slowly crossing into Romania after having clogged Hungary's borders both to the west and the east for two days in a row.
Romania is the European Union's second-poorest country, and at least 4 million Romanians work abroad, according to estimates.
The bottlenecks were worsened by Hungary's decision to close its borders on very short notice from March 17 at midnight -- a measure relaxed by Budapest after consultations with the Romanian government.
"Romanians from abroad are dear to us, and we long to be with them for Easter," Iohannis said. "However, that won't be possible this year.... We must tell them with sadness but also with sincerity not to come home for the holidays," he added.
Some 12,500 mostly Romanian travelers had crossed into Romania in 4,600 vehicles as of the morning of March 19, Romanian border police said.
They said 180 people were immediately quarantined, while some 10,000 were ordered into self-isolation once they reached their destinations.
The rest were mostly travelers in transit toward Moldova and Bulgaria, according to the police.
Romania has confirmed 277 coronavirus cases.
One of the patients is in serious condition in intensive care, while 25 people have recovered, according to health authorities.
No deaths have been reported so far.
However, authorities are concerned that the massive number of Romanians returning, mostly from Italy and Spain -- the European countries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic -- will lead to a spike in infections in the run-up to Orthodox Easter on April 19.
The Romanian military has started building an emergency hospital in Bucharest amid fears that the country's crumbling health-care system will not be able to cope with the outbreak.
Ukraine
Some 900 Ukrainians are embarking on March 19 on a train journey from Prague to Kyiv as part of an evacuation plan amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The train is set to travel through the Czech Republic and Poland, where it will make a stop at Przemysl, before heading to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and the capital.
Yevhen Perebiynis, the Ukrainian ambassador to Prague, tweeted that more than 3,000 Ukrainians residing in the Czech Republic had asked to be evacuated.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Zhytomyr, Serhiy Sukhomlyn, said the city located 140 kilometers west of Kyiv recorded its first coronavirus infection.
Sukhomlyn said the patient, aged 56, had recently returned from Austria.
As of March 19, there were 21 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness in six regions and the capital, Kyiv, the Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine recorded its third death linked to COVID-19 in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
An elderly woman died one day after visiting a hospital with severe flu-like symptoms, according to the Health Ministry.
Russia
Russian officials have reported the country's first death connected to the coronavirus outbreak, but quickly backtracked, saying an elderly woman perished due to a detached blood clot.
The Moscow health department said on March 19 that the 79-year-old, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died in a Moscow hospital from pneumonia related to the virus.
Svetlana Krasnova, head doctor at Moscow's hospital No. 2 for infectious diseases, said in a statement that the woman had been admitted with "a host of chronic diseases," including type 2 diabetes and heart problems.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin then confirmed the coronavirus-releated death, saying on Twitter, "Unfortunately, we have the first loss from the coronavirus infection."
Hours later, however, health officials put out another statement saying an autopsy had confirmed the woman had died of a blood clot.
A subsequent official tally of the number of official coronavirus cases in Russia showed 199 confirmed infections but no deaths.
It was not clear whether the woman's death would eventually be counted as a result of the virus.
Though President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that the situation was "generally under control," many Russians have shown a distrust for official claims over the virus, and fear the true situation is much worse than they are being told.
Amid a recent rise in the number of cases, officials have temporarily barred entry to foreigners and imposed restrictions on flights and public gatherings.
The national health watchdog on March 19 tightened restrictions for all travellers from abroad with a decree requiring "all individuals arriving to Russia" to be isolated, either at home or elsewhere.
Russia Rushes To Build Hospital For COVID-19 Treatment
Serbia
Serbia has closed its main airport for all passenger flights and said it will shut its borders for all but freight traffic in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The government banned commercial flights to and from the Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade on March 19.
However, the airport will remain open to humanitarian and cargo flights, according to the Ministry of Construction, Traffic, and Infrastructure.
Later in the day, President Aleksandar Vucic said that as of March 20, Serbia's border crossings will be closed for all passenger road and rail transport.
"Nothing but trucks will be allowed to enter," Vucic said. "From noon tomorrow we will also halt commercial passenger transport inside the country."
The move comes after some 70,000 Serbs working in Western Europe and their families returned to Serbia in the last few days despite appeals by authorities not to do so.
Serbia currently has 103 confirmed coronavirus cases, with no fatalities.
The Balkan country had already imposed a state of emergency, introduced a night curfew for all citizens, and ordered the elderly to stay indoors.
Pakistan
Authorities in Pakistan have closed shrines of Sufi saints in the capital, Islamabad, and elsewhere while access to museums, archaeological, and tourist sites have been banned as confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to 301, mostly in pilgrims returning from Iran.
Two Pakistanis who had returned from Saudi Arabia and Dubai became the country's first victims when they died on March 18 in the northwest.
Schools have already been shut in Pakistan.
Thousands of Pakistanis, mostly pilgrims, have been placed into quarantine in recent weeks at the Taftan border crossing in the country's southwestern province of Balochistan after returning from Iran, one of the world's worst affected countries.
Pakistani authorities on March 19 plan to quarantine hundreds more pilgrims who returned from Iran. These pilgrims will be kept at isolated buildings in central Pakistan for 14 days.
Uzbekistan
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s influential son-in-law says police have identified individuals who allegedly published the names of Uzbek nationals who tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Otabek Umarov, who is also the deputy head of the president’s personal security, said on Instagram that officials are now trying to determine the legality of the perpetrators’ actions.
A joint working group set up by the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General’s Office has also identified 33 social media accounts involved in “disseminating false information that provokes panic among people,” Umarov wrote.
He called the accounts a “betrayal” of the country and a matter of “national security.”
Umarov’s comments come amid a campaign by the Uzbek government to crack down on information that incites panic and fear among the public amid the coronavirus crisis.
On March 16, the country’s Justice Ministry said that, according to Uzbek law, those involved in preparing materials with the intention of inciting panic -- and those storing such materials with the intent to distribute them -- will face up to $9,400 in fines or up to three years in prison.
Those who spread such information through media and the Internet face up to eight years in prison, the ministry added.
The statement came a day after the Central Asian nation announced its first confirmed coronavirus infection, which prompted the government to introduce sweeping measures to contain the outbreak, including closing its borders, suspending international flights, closing schools, and banning public gatherings.
The number of infections had risen to 23 as of the morning of March 19, the Health Ministry said.
The ministry said that the 23 individuals are all Uzbek nationals who had returned home from Europe, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
The Health Ministry regularly updates its social media accounts with information on the outbreak in Uzbekistan. Posts are frequently accompanied by the hashtag “quarantine without panic” in both Uzbek and Russian.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
The Kazakh national currency, the tenge, has continued to weaken sharply as the number of coronavirus cases in the oil-rich Central Asian nation reached 44.
Many exchange points in Nur-Sultan, the capital, and the former Soviet republic's largest city, Almaty, did not sell U.S. dollars or euros on March 19, while some offered 471 tenges for $1, more than 25 percent weaker than in early March when the rate was around 375 tenges.
The tenge has plunged to all-time lows in recent days following an abrupt fall in oil prices and chaos in the world's stock markets caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The Kazakh Health Ministry said on March 19 that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country had increased by seven to 44.
In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, three people, who returned home from Saudi Arabia several days ago, tested positive for the virus, which led to three villages being sealed off in the southern Jalal-Abad region.
In two other Central Asian nations, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, no coronavirus cases have been officially recorded to date.
Armenia
A relative of an Armenian woman blamed for spreading the coronavirus in the South Caucasus country alleges that criminal offenses have been committed against members of their family.
It emerged last week that the woman had traveled from Italy before attending a family gathering with dozens of guests in the city of Echmiadzin, disregarding health warnings about the coronavirus pandemic.
The woman, whose name was not released, later tested positive for the virus and was hospitalized. Dozens of other people who attended the gathering were placed under a 14-day quarantine.
Armenia has reported a total of 122 cases so far, including dozens in Echmiadzin. It has not yet reported any deaths.
Echmiadzin was locked down and a nationwide state of emergency has been announced in a bid to slow the spread of infection in Armenia.
Many on social media in Armenia expressed anger over what they said was irresponsible behavior by the woman.
Some ridiculed the woman and used offensive language against her. A photo of her also was posted online.
The woman’s lawyer, Gohar Hovhannisian, said that one of her relatives who lives abroad filed a complaint with the public prosecutor on March 17.
The complaint alleges that personal information about infected people was illegally obtained and published by the press and social media along with insults and photographs.
"It affects the mental state of a person. Imagine that a person is sick and such language is used against her or him and her or his personal data are published," Hovhannisian said.
The Prosecutor-General's Office forwarded the report to police to investigate the case.
Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisian, who is not related to the lawyer, noted that the protection of personal data is enshrined in Armenia’s law. He said that disclosure of personal data in this case made it possible to identify the infected woman.
"Moreover, under the law on medical care and public services it is forbidden to disclose medical secrets, talk about people’s medical examinations and the course of their treatment as well as to pass these data to third parties," the activist said.
Earlier this week, a shop owner in Yerevan filed a complaint with police alleging that he had been attacked by three relatives of the woman in question for posting a joke about her on Facebook.
Police said they had identified and questioned three people over that complaint. But the authorities did not reveal their identities.
Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijani capital, Baku, has been sealed off to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the South Caucasus state.
According to a government decision, as of March 19 entrance to Baku, the nearby city of Sumqayit, and the Abseron district has been banned for all cars, except ambulances, cargo trucks, and vehicles carrying rescue teams and road accident brigades. The measure will run until at least March 29.
All railway links between Baku, Sumqayit and the Abseron district, and the rest of the country were also suspended.
Azerbaijan has reported 34 confirmed coronavirus cases, with one fatality.
In neighboring Armenia, where authorities announced a state of emergency until April 16, the number of coronavirus cases is 115.
Elsewhere in the South Caucasus, Georgia, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 40.
Afghanistan
The United States is temporarily suspending the movement of new soldiers into Afghanistan as a way of protecting them from the coronavirus outbreak.
U.S. Army General Scott Miller said in a March 19 statement that the move could mean that some of the troops already on the ground in Afghanistan may have their deployments extended to ensure that the NATO-led Resolute Support mission continues.
"To preserve our currently healthy force, Resolute Support is making the necessary adjustments to temporarily pause personnel movement into the theater," he said.
“We are closely monitoring, continually assessing and adjusting our operations so we can continue to protect the national interests of the NATO allies and partners here in Afghanistan," he added.
About 1,500 troops and civilians who recently arrived in Afghanistan have been quarantined, Miller said, stressing that this was purely a precautionary measure and “not because they are sick.”
Earlier this month, the United States began reducing its troop presence in Afghanistan as part of a peace deal signed in February with the Taliban.
The agreement sees an initial reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from about 13,000 to 8,600 soldiers.
Miller did not mention the agreement in his statement.
So far, 21 U.S. and coalition staff exhibiting flu-like symptoms are in isolation and receiving medical care, Miller’s statement said.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Romanian, and Uzbek services, AP, AFP, Reuters, Digi24.ro, G4media.ro, and Hotnews.ro
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- By RFE/RL
Rubio Says Progress Needed In Ukraine War Negotiations Or US Will Step Back
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on April 29 that unless Russia and Ukraine put forward "concrete proposals” for ending the war in Ukraine, the United States will “step back as mediators.”
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.
Later on April 29 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.
President Donald Trump said in an interview with ABC broadcast on April 29 he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to stop the war in Ukraine. Trump responded "I think he does" when asked whether he thinks Putin wants to make peace in the interview.
Putin on April 28 declared a three-day ceasefire from May 8-10 to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy questioned the need to wait until the anniversary for a cease-fire and called for an "immediate, full, and unconditional" 30-day truce.
Trump and his envoys have been pressing Ukraine to agree to a cease-fire. At the same time Trump 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."
The US president 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 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 Russia has held since 2014.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
- By RFE/RL
Court Orders USAGM To Release Congress-Approved Grant Funds For April To RFE/RL
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.
U.S. 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 US President Donald 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 almost 50 million people in countries including Belarus, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, and Russia as it seeks to present independent and unbiased news and information to the 23 countries it broadcasts to 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.
Pakistan Readying To Challenge India's Suspension Of Vital Water Treaty Amid Rising Tensions
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.
Iran Port Explosion Death Toll Hits 70 As Authorities Blame 'Negligence'
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.”
Russia Launches Drone Attacks On Dnipro, Kharkiv After Kremlin Rejects Offer Of 30-Day Cease-Fire
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. "Private homes have been damaged."
Russian drones earlier on April 29 struck Kharkiv, Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said, adding that 11 people had been injured, and a 5-year-old girl experienced what he called an “acute stress reaction."
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 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, Alexander Khinshtein, said drones attacked the town of Rylsk, injuring three people and damaging three apartment buildings, a private house and a kindergarten.
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
EU Says Hungary's Block Could Mean Moldova's Accession Moves Forward Without Ukraine
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.
Moldovan membership 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.
"And 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.”
Kos said it was regretful that Budapest is playing politics with Ukraine's membership, 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.
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 a 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, we are planning another one on migration,” she said.
When pressed if she thought something similar was on the cards for Tbilisi, she added: “I think that 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.”
- By RFE/RL
Iran Accuses Israel's Netanyahu Of Trying To Derail Nuclear Talks
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.
Russia Charges Man With Car Bombing That Killed Top General
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.
- By RFE/RL
Putin Calls For 3-Day Cease-Fire With Ukraine Over WWII Victory Day
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
As India-Pakistan Tensions Soar, Dozens Of Afghan Insurgents Killed Crossing Border
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
Iran Port Explosion That Killed Dozens Blamed On Unregistered Rocket Fuel
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.
Iran, US Officials Meet In Oman For Third Round Of Nuclear Talks
Iran and the United States met in Oman on April 26 for the third round of talks over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. A fourth round is scheduled for May 3, with the location yet to be announced.
The talks ran for several hours in Muscat, Omani mediators said of the indirect sessions between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East.
"The negotiations were conducted very seriously and professionally," Araqchi said without providing full details. "We are cautiously optimistic."
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who has mediated the two previous round of US-Iran talks in Muscat and Rome, offered a positive note at the end of the negotiations.
Iran and the United States “identified a shared aspiration to reach agreement based on mutual respect and enduring commitments,” Busaidi posted on X after the conclusion of talks in Oman.
“Core principles, objectives and technical concerns were all addressed. Talks will continue next week with a further high-level meeting provisionally scheduled for May 3.”
The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the United States has imposed on the country.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached.
Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
- By RFE/RL
Rubio Says Ukraine Peace Deal 'Closer' As Kyiv Calls For More Pressure On Russia
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "closer" as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for greater international pressure on the Kremlin following the latest wave of attacks along the front line.
"They [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 on April 27.
"We have made real progress, but those last couple of steps of this journey were always going to be the hardest ones, and it needs to happen soon," he said, adding this would be a "very critical week" in the negotiation process.
US President Donald Trump has made ending the 38-month war a top priority since taking office nearly 100 days ago, calling last month for an immediate and full cease-fire.
While Zelenskyy has agreed to Trump's proposal, his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, has continued to negotiate details of a cease-fire with Washington.
Experts say Putin is 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 the goal of fully capturing the four regions of eastern Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed in 2022: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson.
Russian troops launched almost 70 attacks along the 1,000-kilometer-long front on April 27, Zelenskyy said in a post on X as he called on the West to take tougher measures against the Kremlin.
"The situation on the front line and the real activity of the Russian Army prove that the current global pressure on Russia is insufficient to bring this war to an end. Soon, it will be 50 days since Russia began ignoring [Trump's] proposal for a full and unconditional cease-fire -- a proposal Ukraine accepted back on March 11. More tangible pressure on Russia is needed to create more opportunities for real diplomacy," he said.
The Ukrainian leader also said his forces were continuing to fight in the Russian region of Kursk, contradicting Moscow's claims earlier in the day that it had driven Ukrainian troops from its territory.
Trump And Zelenskyy Meet At The Vatican
The day before, Trump met with Zelenskyy at the Vatican in Rome, where both were attending funeral services for Pope Francis, who died Easter Monday at the age of 88.
The April 26 meeting, which lasted about 15 minutes, was their first since Trump kicked Zelenskyy out of the Oval Office in February following a public spat over peace talks that shocked allies.
Steven Cheung, the White House's communications director, said Trump and Zelenskyy "had a very productive discussion."
Zelenskyy called it a "very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results," he added.
John Bolton, Trump's former national-security adviser during his first term and a staunch critic of the president, told CNN the meeting was "a significant step back toward sensible conversation between the two leaders."
Trump and Zelenskyy also met with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the funeral.
Macron's office described the exchanges between leaders as "positive" and said he later met separately with Zelenskyy.
Starmer's office said he and Zelenskyy had "discussed positive progress made in recent days to secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine."
Trump's Rare Critique Of Putin
Following the meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump made a rare critique of Putin, denouncing Russia's continued attacks on Ukraine, which have killed dozens of civilians over the past two weeks.
"There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions'?," he wrote in the post later on April 26.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow only targets "military goals or civilian sites used by the [Ukrainian] military," insinuating that Ukraine is placing forces, weapons, or command and control nodes around apartment and commercial buildings.
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 to Russia to secure a peace deal. He said in a Time magazine interview published on April 25 that "Crimea will stay with Russia."
Bolton said in the CNN interview that a permanent peace deal is "a long way away" because the terms that Trump is backing essentially "amounts to surrender for Ukraine."
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.
Rubio reiterated in the NBC interview that Russia would have to make concessions too, but the Trump administration has not outlined any to date.
“The only solution to this war is a negotiated settlement where both sides are going to have to give up something they claim to want, and are going to have to give the other side something they wish they didn’t,” Rubio said. “That’s how you end wars, and that’s what we’re trying to achieve here so more people won’t die.”
Rubio appeared to play down the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia to force Moscow to agree to a peace deal.
"The minute you start doing that kind of stuff, you’re walking away from it -- you’ve now doomed yourself to another two years of war, and we don’t want to see it happen...No one else is talking to both sides but us.”
Zelenskyy has said that Kyiv will not recognize Russian sovereignty of its territory, but the Ukrainian leader is in a tough position.
His country is heavily dependent on US military aid, especially air defense, rocket launches, and ammunition. Current US military aid approved in 2024 may run out this summer and it is unclear whether the Trump administration will approve additional weapons delivers should the war still be in progress.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the amount of aid the United States has given to Ukraine and has demanded Washington be reimbursed for its support. The US Government Accountability Office has estimated US aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion at more than $170 billion.
Trump wants Ukraine to give the United States access to its critical minerals and natural resources as a form of compensation. Washington and Kyiv have been in talks for months about the parameters of a deal but have yet to reach an agreement.
Trump on April 25 criticized Zelenskyy for the delay, saying the deal was "at least three weeks late." Rubio did not say whether he expects the United States and Ukraine to sign the deal during this "very critical" week.
Speaking to Fox News on April 27, White House national-security adviser Mike Waltz suggested the sides could be close to finalizing a minerals deal.
"The Ukraine deal is going to get done,” he said.
"The negotiators were working hard over the weekend. That is first and foremost...on the president's mind. It's going to get done. The president is determined to make it so," he added.
With reporting by AP and Reuters
- By RFE/RL
Moscow, Pyongyang Confirm North Korean Troops Fighting Against Ukraine
Russia has confirmed for the first time that it deployed North Korean soldiers in the battle to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk region following Kyiv's shock incursion into the border area last year.
In a statement on April 26, the Russian Foreign Ministry acknowledged the "significant contribution" of North Korean soldiers to Moscow's war efforts.
Hours later, Pyongyang also confirmed for the first time that it had deployed troops to Russia on the orders of leader Kim Jong Un.
Following the acknowledgments, the US State Department said it was concerned by North Korea's direct involvement in Russia's war.
"We continue to be concerned by [North Korea's] direct involvement in the war. [North Korea's] military deployment to Russia and any support provided by the Russian Federation to [North Korea] in return must end," a State Department spokesperson said in an e-mail to Reuters.
Russia's Foreign Ministry, citing the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Russia and North Korea from December 4, 2024, said that "a new page has been written in the glorious annals of the military brotherhood of the Russian and Korean peoples."
"The fighters of the Korean People's Army...fought shoulder to shoulder, in the same trench, and shed blood with our soldiers and officers in the Kursk region and made a significant contribution to the liberation of Russian land from enemy occupiers."
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, told President Vladimir Putin in a video conference that North Korean soldiers had made a significant contribution to the "liberation" of the region from Ukrainian soldiers.
The comments confirmed what Ukrainian and Western officials have long said: that Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
US officials said more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers participated in the fight and had suffered massive losses.
Gerasimov said the Korean mission was in line with the partnership agreement between the two countries.
"The soldiers and officers of the Korean People's Army who fought shoulder to shoulder with Russian soldiers in repelling the Ukrainian invasion showed high professionalism, bravery, courage, and heroism in battle," Gerasimov told Putin.
Russia has claimed to have pushed Ukrainian forces out of most of Kursk, although Kyiv has said its forces are holding on in the Russian region.
In late March, North Korean leader Kim paraded new military drones amid reports that he has sent an additional 3,000 troops to help Russia in its war on Ukraine.
Pyongyang released images on March 27 showing Kim inspecting tests of reconnaissance and attack drones at an undisclosed location. There has been international concern that Russia is providing North Korea with drone technology in return for substantial military aid.
The same day Kim inspected the new drones, South Korea’s publicly owned Yonhap news agency cited the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in Seoul as saying that "it appears that some 3,000 or more [North Korean troop] have been additionally dispatched [to Russia] in January and February."
The reported new troop deployment follows an earlier 11,000-strong contingent Pyongyang sent that has seen action in Russia's Kursk region.
In its statement early on April 28, North Korea said it would "faithfully implement" its agreement with Russia, according to state-run KCNA news agency. It added that North Korean troops had made an "important contribution to the liberation" of territory occupied by Ukrainian forces.
"We can say that Russia is already becoming dependent on North Korea in many ways, not only in terms of shells, but also in terms of other weapons...as well as in terms of soldiers," Ukrainian analyst Oleh Saakyan told RFE/RL’s Current Time.
There has been a substantial warming in relations between Moscow and Pyongyang since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
As well as sending troops, North Korea has also sent short-range missiles, self-propelled howitzers and rocket launchers, according to the South Korean military.
With reporting by Reuters and AP
- By RFE/RL
Trump Demands Free Passage For US Vessels Through Panama, Suez Canals
President Donald Trump said US commercial and military vessels should be able to travel without charge through the Panama and Suez Canals, two of the world’s most important waterway shortcuts.
"American Ships, both Military and Commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on April 26.
"Those Canals would not exist without the United States of America. I’ve asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to immediately take care of, and memorialize, this situation!"
The remarks are the latest by the US leader regarding greater access -- or ownership -- of key global assets.
Earlier, he spoke of making Canada the 51st US state, annexing Greenland, controlling the Gaza Strip, and gaining ownership of Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals.
The Panama Canal was built by the United States from 1904-14, with thousands of local workers dying during construction. The waterway greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Built by French engineers in the 19th century, the Suez Canal has been controlled by the Egyptian government.
The Panama Canal and surrounding zone remained under US control until they were handed back to Panama in 1999 following a treaty signed by US President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
Trump recently won a major concession from Panama as he demanded more US influence over the canal -- including allowing the US military to station troops around the waterway, alongside Panamanian forces, to help protect its sovereignty.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to "take back" the canal, which he claims is being controlled by China. Prior to taking office in January, Trump told reporters he would not rule out using economic or military pressure to regain control.
While Trump has often spoken of his interest in the Panama Canal, his latest remarks on the Suez appear to be a new focus.
Egypt controls the canal, which links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. it accounted for some 10 percent of global maritime trade before Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels began attacking shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters
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