Iran’s largest naval vessel caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman Wednesday. State media reported 33 injuries among the 400 sailors who had to evacuate the ship. Hours later, a massive fire broke out at a state-owned petrochemical refinery near Iran’s capital, Tehran. It’s not clear what caused the fires, which raised speculation they were the latest in a string of sabotage attacks by Israel.
The disasters came as a European Union envoy leading talks on restoring the Iran nuclear deal predicted an agreement will be reached next week. The first Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015, but fell apart in 2018 after former President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement, which has been opposed by Israel.