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Zelensky to Visit White House Under Shadow of Trump Spat

FILE - President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
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Zelensky to Visit White House Under Shadow of Trump Spat

FILE - President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
FILE - President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will present his "victory plan" to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Thursday, but a blazing row with Donald Trump underscored how the US election could soon upend support for Kyiv.
Zelensky's trip to the White House is set to feature the announcement of a surge in US support, although it is unclear whether he will get the green light he wants for Ukraine to fire US-made long-range missiles into Russia.
Republican presidential contender Trump, who faces Democratic Vice President Harris in November's close election, had also been due to meet Zelensky but their talks now appear to be on ice, said AFP.
Trump accused Zelensky on the eve of the visit of refusing to strike a deal with Moscow and once again questioned why the United States was giving billions of dollars to Kyiv.
Biden will host Zelensky in the Oval Office at 1:45 pm local time (1745 GMT), the White House said. The Ukrainian leader and Harris will deliver remarks at 3:05 pm before their meeting in the vice president's office.
Zelensky was also due to visit the US Congress.
During a meeting at the United Nations on Wednesday, Biden "informed president Zelensky that he has directed a surge in US security assistance to Ukraine, which will be announced publicly" on Thursday, the White House said.
Zelensky gave a defiant address at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday in a bid to rally international support amid an increasingly difficult situation on the battlefield.
The Ukrainian has for several weeks touted the so-called "victory plan" he will present to Biden, but has given no details of his proposals to end the war, which is now in its third year.
'Greatest salesman'
The United States has provided around $175 billion in both military and economic assistance to Ukraine during the war, despite frequent opposition from Republicans.
The Biden administration announced another $375 million on Wednesday, including munitions for HIMARS precision rocket launchers, cluster munitions and light tactical vehicles.
But Zelensky has been pushing the United States hard to give the green light for Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russian territory -- permission Biden has so far refused.
Russia has strongly warned against such a step. President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday unveiled new rules meaning Moscow would consider using nuclear weapons in response to a massive air attack.
Kyiv has relied on the United States as its main military backer, but the knife-edge US election on November 5 means that support may now hang in the balance.
Trump has echoed many of Putin's talking points about previous US policy being to blame for the Russian invasion, and has been critical of Zelensky for years.
At an election rally on Wednesday, the Republican called the Ukrainian president "probably the greatest salesman on Earth."
"We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelensky," he said.
Republicans were livid after Zelensky told The New Yorker magazine this week Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance did not understand the war's complexity.
Trump has claimed that he could arrange a peace deal within 24 hours if elected, but Kyiv fears it would involve ceding swathes of territory seized by Russia.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has declined a meeting with Zelensky in Congress, called on the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States to quit on Wednesday after Zelensky visited an arms factory in the battleground state of Pennsylvania with the state's Democratic governor.
Johnson accused the ambassador of having deliberately excluded Republicans.

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Massive Explosion at Iranian Port Linked to Missile Fuel Shipment Kills 5, Injures Hundreds

In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, a helicopter drops water on the fire after a massive explosion rocked a port near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (Razieh Pudat/ISNA via AP)
In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, a helicopter drops water on the fire after a massive explosion rocked a port near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (Razieh Pudat/ISNA via AP)
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Massive Explosion at Iranian Port Linked to Missile Fuel Shipment Kills 5, Injures Hundreds

In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, a helicopter drops water on the fire after a massive explosion rocked a port near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (Razieh Pudat/ISNA via AP)
In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, a helicopter drops water on the fire after a massive explosion rocked a port near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (Razieh Pudat/ISNA via AP)

A massive explosion and fire rocked a port Saturday in southern Iran purportedly linked to a shipment of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant, killing five people and injuring more than 700 others.

Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, gave the updated casualty figure in an interview on state television. The previous toll was four dead and more than 500 others injured.

The blast at the Shahid Rajaei port happened as Iran and the United States met Saturday in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

While no one in Iran outright suggested that the explosion came from an attack, even Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the talks, on Wednesday acknowledged that "our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response."

Port reportedly received chemical for missile fuel

For hours, authorities in Iran offered no clear explanation for what caused the blast at the port, which is just outside of Bandar Abbas, though they did deny that the explosion had anything to do with the country's oil industry.

However, the port took in a shipment of "sodium perchlorate rocket fuel" in March, the private security firm Ambrey said. The fuel is part of a shipment from China by two vessels to Iran first reported in January by the Financial Times. The fuel was going to be used to replenish Iran's missile stocks, which had been depleted by its direct attacks on Israel during the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"The fire was reportedly the result of improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles," Ambrey said.

Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press put one of the vessels believed to be carrying the chemical in the vicinity in March, as Ambrey said. Iran hasn't acknowledged taking the shipment. The Iranian mission to the United Nations didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

It's unclear why Iran wouldn't have moved the chemicals from the port, particularly after the Beirut port blast in 2020. That explosion, caused by the ignition of hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, killed more than 200 people and injured more than 6,000 others. However, Israel did target Iranian missile sites where Tehran uses industrial mixers to create solid fuel.

Social media footage of the explosion on Saturday at Shahid Rajaei saw reddish-hued smoke rising from the fire just before the detonation. That suggests a chemical compound being involved in the blast.

"Get back get back! Tell the gas (truck) to go!" a man in one video shouted just before the blast. "Tell him to go, it’s going to blow up! Oh God, this is blowing up! Everybody evacuate! Get back! Get back!"

On Saturday night, the state-run IRNA news agency said that the Customs Administration of Iran blamed a "stockpile of hazardous goods and chemical materials stored in the port area" for the blast, without elaborating.

Port a major destination for Iranian cargo  

Shahid Rajaei has been a target before. A 2020 cyberattack attributed to Israel targeted the port. It came after Israel said that it thwarted a cyberattack targeting its water infrastructure, which it attributed to Iran.

Social media videos showed black billowing smoke after the blast. Others showed glass blown out of buildings kilometers, or miles, away from the epicenter of the explosion. State media footage showed the injured crowding into at least one hospital, with ambulances arriving as medics rushed one person by on a stretcher.

Hasanzadeh, the provincial disaster management official, earlier told state television that the blast came from containers at Shahid Rajaei port in the city, without elaborating. State television also reported that there had been a building collapse caused by the explosion, though no further details were offered.

The Interior Ministry said that it launched an investigation into the blast. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also offered his condolences for those affected in the blast.

Shahid Rajaei port in Hormozgan province is about 1,050 kilometers (650 miles) southeast of Iran's capital, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes.