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UK, Italy Discuss De-Escalating Regional Tensions with Lebanese, Israeli Officials 

Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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UK, Italy Discuss De-Escalating Regional Tensions with Lebanese, Israeli Officials 

Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. (Reuters)

Britain and Italy discussed on Monday the latest regional escalation with Lebanese and Israeli officials. 

Britain welcomes the Lebanese government's call for a cessation of all violence after an attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights blamed on Lebanon's Hezbollah, Britain's foreign minister said following a call with Lebanon's caretaker prime minister.  

"I spoke to (Lebanon's) Prime Minister @Najib_Mikati today to express my concern at escalating tension and welcomed the Government of Lebanon’s statement urging for cessation of all violence," David Lammy wrote on X on Monday.  

"We both agreed that widening of conflict in the region is in nobody’s interest." 

Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani has discussed preventing a new war in the Middle East with his Israeli and Lebanese counterparts, Israel Katz and Bou Habib, he said on Monday. 

"Breaking the spiral of violence is possible", he wrote on social media platform X. 

He said the Italian government was committed to peace and stability, including through Italy's presence in the United Nations' UNIFIL contingent.  

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Arab World

Relatives of Bashar Assad Arrested as They Tried to Fly Out of Lebanon, Officials Say

A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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Relatives of Bashar Assad Arrested as They Tried to Fly Out of Lebanon, Officials Say

A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A torn poster of Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad hangs near the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, in Daraa, Syria, December 27, 2024. (Reuters)

The wife and daughter of one of deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad ’s cousins were arrested Friday at the Beirut airport, where they attempted to fly out with allegedly forged passports, Lebanese judicial and security officials said. Assad’s uncle departed the day before.

Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of Bashar Assad — and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled illegally into Lebanon and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested, according to five Lebanese officials familiar with the case.

They were being detained by Lebanese General Security. Rifaat had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Swiss federal prosecutors in March indicted Rifaat on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago.

Rifaat Assad, the brother of Bashar Assad's father Hafez Assad, Syria's former ruler, led the artillery unit that shelled the city of Hama and killed thousands, earning him the nickname the “Butcher of Hama.”

Earlier this year, Rifaat Assad was indicted in Switzerland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Hama.

Tens of thousands of Syrians are believed to have entered Lebanon illegally on the night of Assad’s fall earlier this month, when insurgent forces entered Damascus.

The Lebanese security and judicial officials said that more than 20 members of the former Syrian Army’s notorious 4th Division, military intelligence officers and others affiliated with Assad’s security forces were arrested earlier in Lebanon. Some of them were arrested when they attempted to sell their weapons.

Lebanon’s public prosecution office also received an Interpol notice requesting the arrest of Jamil al-Hassan, the former director of Syrian intelligence under Assad. Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati previously told Reuters that Lebanon would cooperate with the Interpol request to arrest al-Hassan.