EU UNFRIENDLY TO RUSSIA: LAVROV
Russia is viewing the European Union as an unfriendly association now, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with aif.ru posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website on Tuesday, TASS reports.
"The European Union has ‘lost’ Russia. However, it is its own making. Exactly the EU member-states and leaders of the Union openly state the need of inflicting the strategic defeat to Russia, as they say. They are filling the criminal Kiev regime with weapons and munitions and send instructors and mercenaries to Ukraine. These are the reasons why we consider the EU to be the unfriendly association," Lavrov said.
The Russian side made necessary conclusions from this situation, the minister stressed. Moscow will act in response to hostile steps "decidedly if necessary, being governed by national interests of Russia and the reciprocity principle commonly adopted in the diplomatic practice," he added.
MISSION HEADED BY ALI ASGHAR KHAJI IS IN MOSCOW
The quadrilateral meeting of the Iranian, Russian, Syrian, and Turkish deputy foreign ministers started in Moscow on Tuesday.
Ali Asghar Khaji, a senior aide on political affairs to Iran’s foreign minister, heads the Iranian delegation in the meeting, MNA reported.
The meeting was initially scheduled for March 15-16 but was postponed due to technical reasons.
The objective of the talks is to normalize dialogue between Damascus and Ankara, as well as to prepare a future meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries. The negotiations will be a follow-up to the meeting of Turkish and Syrian defense ministers that took place in December for the first time in 11 years.
The sides will also discuss the situation in the region and issues on the common agenda.
SYRIAN AIR DEFENCES CONFRONT ISRAELI TARGETS OVER DAMASCUS
Syrian air defences confronted a number of Israeli targets over its capital's airspace late on Monday (April 3) evening, state media reported, adding that a number of missiles were intercepted.
Video taken in the early hours of Tuesday (April 4) morning showed the defence system hitting several targets in the sky, followed by audible explosions, Reuters reports.
Israel has for years carried out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict.
The Israeli military have declined to comment on the most recently reported strikes in Syria, with today's strike being the fourth since March 30.
An Israeli attack near Damascus on Friday (March 31) killed two members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Iranian state media reported on Sunday (April 2).
US, EU VOW TO COMBAT ATTEMPTS TO DISRUPT ENERGY MARKETS
The U.S. and EU pledged on Tuesday (April 4) to confront any attempts to destabilise global energy markets, after meeting in Brussels to discuss the impact of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Cooperation on energy between the United States and the European Union has intensified since Russia slashed gas deliveries to Europe after its invasion of Ukraine last year.
This plunged the continent into a crisis over energy supplies and record-high prices.
European politicians have accused Russia of "weaponizing" its energy supplies and the U.S. and EU have imposed sanctions on Russian goods including coal and oil, as well as a G7-organised price cap on seaborne Russian oil.
"The two sides reiterated their strong commitment to directly confront, with adequate measures, all efforts to further destabilise the global energy situation and to circumvent sanctions," they said in a joint statement.
Europe has so far managed to replace most of the gas it previously got from Moscow, aided by a jump in imports from other suppliers, a rapid build-out of renewable energy, warm winter weather and EU policies that curbed overall gas use.
The U.S. delivered 56 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the EU in 2022, more than doubling the previous year's deliveries and making Europe the top destination for U.S. LNG supplies.
The U.S.-EU statement said the two sides would also intensify cooperation to cut reliance on Russia for nuclear fuel and services, and hold a joint meeting this year to promote advanced technologies such as small modular reactors.
The EU has not sanctioned imports of Russian gas or nuclear fuel, which some of the 27-country bloc's members rely on.
Russia supplied 20% of EU nuclear power plants' uranium - the main fuel for them - in 2021, and 31% of their uranium enrichment services, according to the Euratom Supply Agency.
The United States imported 35% of its uranium from Kazakhstan the same year, with 15% from Canada, 14% from Australia and 14% from Russia.
NETHERLANDS TRAIN CRASHES INTO MAINTENANCE CRANE, KILLING ONE; DOZENS HURT
A passenger train in the Netherlands rammed into a maintenance crane on the railway tracks early on Tuesday (April 4), killing the equipment operator and injuring dozens of passengers as the train derailed, officials and local media said.
The maintenance work was planned and standard, but "we have no idea how the crane got on the track which was still open for traffic," John Voppen, the CEO of railway infrastructure firm ProRail, said at a news briefing.
Rescue teams ferried away the injured at the scene of the pre-dawn incident in Voorschoten, a village near The Hague. The accident happened at around 3:25 a.m., emergency services said.
Some of the injured were treated on the spot and some in nearby homes, while 19 were taken to hospital.
Train services will be suspended for days on one of the busiest routes in the Netherlands, between The Hague and Leiden, due to the incident, ProRail said.
There will be several investigations to ascertain the reasons for the crash and to set up prevention measures, officials said.
Jeroen Wienen, a spokesman for ProRail, said a freight train had hit the crane as well.
Dutch construction group BAM confirmed that an employee had died in the accident.
The driver of the passenger train is in hospital with bone fractures, Dutch railways NS CEO Wouter Koolmees said.
The front carriage of the night train from Leiden city to The Hague derailed and ploughed into a field, emergency services said. The second carriage was on its side. A fire that broke out near the train was promptly extinguished.
