Aramco facilities under attack
A devastating fire breaks out at state-run oil giant Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia following the Yemeni army’s retaliatory attacks against the kingdom. The Yemeni army says it has targeted the facility in Jeddah and vital sites in the capital, Riyadh, with winged missiles. The army says the attacks were carried out on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the Saudi war on Yemen. It says Yemen’s armed forces will continue retaliatory operations until the Kingdom stops its aggression.
EU coordinator to visit Iran
It has been nearly a year since Iran and the remaining parties to the 2015 deal began negotiations in the Austrian capital to restore the accord. Now, the European Union coordinator for the talks says he is traveling to Tehran to help close the remaining gaps on reviving the agreement known as the JCPOA. Enrique Mora said he would meet with Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s top negotiator in the Vienna talks later today. Meanwhile, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the US will increase pressure on Iran if talks over the JCPOA revival fail. Iran has stressed that it is ready for a good agreement if the US removes sanctions verifiably and provides guarantees that it will not abandon the deal again as it did so in 2018.
Rejecting US chemical allegation
Moscow rejects Washington’s allegation that Russia is weighing the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov says this is a tactic to divert attention away from the United States’ own chemical weapons program. Moscow earlier also warned that the US labs across Ukraine are developing weapons of biological warfare. US President Joe Biden, however, pushed back against the allegation. He said there were clear signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin was considering the use of biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. He did not offer any evidence for his claim. White House officials also said they were getting ready to respond to any such step by Russia.