Cairo Concerned Over Escalating Regional Crisis

A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
TT

Cairo Concerned Over Escalating Regional Crisis

A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty expressed on Saturday to his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib his country's "deep concern over the dangerously increasing pace of escalation" in the region.

Abdelatty affirmed, in a phone call with Bou Habib, Egypt's support to Lebanon in confronting the threats surrounding it, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Wednesday's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has aroused fears of direct conflict between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a region shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Revenge for the killing of the Hamas leader will be "severe and at an appropriate time, place, and manner", the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said in a statement, blaming the "terrorist Zionist regime" of Israel for his death.

Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike that killed Haniyeh hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran's new president.

The assassination of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon has also the region holding its breath for retaliation against Israel on either front, or both. Calls for people to leave Lebanon sharpened as flight activity there cooled.



Syria’s Al-Sharaa Says No to Arms Outside State Control

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
TT

Syria’s Al-Sharaa Says No to Arms Outside State Control

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said his administration would announce the new structure of the defense ministry and military within days.

In a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday, al-Sharaa said that his administration would not allow for arms outside the control of the state.

An official source told Reuters on Saturday that Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, had been named as defense minister in the interim government.
Sharaa did not mention the appointment of a new defense minister on Sunday.
Sharaa discussed the form military institutions would take during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA said.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said last week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former opposition factions and officers who defected from Assad's army.

Earlier Sunday, Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks with al-Sharaa in Damascus.

Jumblatt expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he added.