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Russia Says Israeli Action in Syria Violates Pact that Ended Yom Kippur War

Israeli planes fly over Syria, as seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights
Israeli planes fly over Syria, as seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights
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Russia Says Israeli Action in Syria Violates Pact that Ended Yom Kippur War

Israeli planes fly over Syria, as seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights
Israeli planes fly over Syria, as seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights

Israeli action in Syria violates a 1974 treaty between Israel and Syria that ended the Yom Kippur war, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, calling Israeli airstrikes on Syria a matter for serious concern.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that his country aims to impose a "sterile defense zone" in southern Syria as the Israeli military said a wave of its airstrikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles, Reuters reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing Israel's actions did not serve to stabilize the situation in Syria and called on it to show restraint.

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Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
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Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)

An Italian journalist detained in Iran since Dec. 19 and whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was freed Wednesday and is heading home, Italian officials announced.

A plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that Meloni had informed Sala's parents of the news.

There was no immediate word from the Iranian government on the journalist’s release.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the country, the official IRNA news agency said.

Italian commentators had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days before on Dec. 16, on a US warrant.

The US Justice Department accused him and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost near the Syrian-Jordanian border that killed three American troops.

He remains in detention in Italy.