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UN Rights Chief Travels to Middle East Amid Gaza Escalation 

Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)
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UN Rights Chief Travels to Middle East Amid Gaza Escalation 

Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel's escalation in Gaza.

"It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair," Turk said in a statement. "Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain."

Turk is in Cairo on Tuesday and will visit Rafah, located on the border with Gaza, on Wednesday, before he travels to the Jordanian capital of Amman on Thursday, his office said.

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Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
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Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has become the foreign head of state and first foreign dignitary to pay an official visit to Lebanon's new President Joseph Aoun.

Aoun, the former commander of the Lebanese army, was elected Thursday by the Lebanese parliament to fill a more than two-year vacuum in the presidency.

“I wanted to be the first to visit President Aoun and show, not in words but in actions that Cyprus stands by Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Christodoulides told reporters afterward.

They discussed energy, security, trade and shipping, his office said in a written statement.

Cyprus and Lebanon have had close relations for decades. In recent years the two countries have been involved in intense discussions over border control, as many Syrian refugees living in Lebanon — and an increasing number of Lebanese since the country's major economic crisis began in 2019 — sought to reach Cyprus by sea in smuggler boats.

Cyprus is less than 200 kilometers (130 miles) from the Lebanese capital Beirut and they share maritime borders in waters where undersea natural gas deposits are believed to lie.