BEIRUT: Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has met with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah which has traded deadly cross-border fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war, the Lebanese movement said Thursday.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the border between Lebanon and Israel has witnessed escalating exchanges of fire, primarily involving Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, along with Palestinian groups.
The clashes have raised fears of a broader conflagration.
In a statement, Hezbollah said Amir-Abdollahian and Nasrallah “reviewed the latest developments in Palestine, Lebanon and the region, and... the efforts made to end the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.”
Amir-Abdollahian, who warned on Wednesday that the war could spiral out of control, left Beirut for Doha after their meeting, Iran’s Nour news agency reported.
Hezbollah said on Thursday morning that it fired 48 Katyusha rockets at military base at Ein Zeitim, near the town of Safed in northern Israel, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border.
It said it also carried out at least 10 other attacks on Israeli positions near the frontier, and claimed to have caused casualties.
The Israeli army shelled several locations in southern Lebanon in response, said Lebanon’s National News Agency.
Hezbollah says it has been acting in support of Hamas since the Palestinian Islamist movement’s October 7 attacks on Israel, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 240 people taken hostage.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and its retaliatory air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to the Hamas government that rules the Palestinian territory.
The violence between Israel and Hezbollah has claimed at least 108 lives in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 14 civilians, including three journalists, according to an AFP count.
Six Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed on the Israeli side, according to the authorities.
Iran top diplomat meets Hezbollah chief in Lebanon
https://arab.news/8h3uv
Iran top diplomat meets Hezbollah chief in Lebanon
- Border between Lebanon and Israel has witnessed escalating exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war began
- Clashes primarily involve Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, along with Palestinian groups
Two Tunisia columnists handed over three years in prison
- Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies have already been in detention for almost two years
- They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering
TUNIS: Two prominent Tunisian columnists were sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in prison each for money laundering and tax evasion, according to a relative and local media.
The two men, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, have already been in detention for almost two years for statements considered critical of President Kais Saied’s government, made on radio, television programs and social media.
They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
“Three and a half years for Mourad and Borhen,” Zeghidi’s sister, Meriem Zeghidi Adda, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Since Saied’s power grab, which granted him sweeping powers on July 25, 2021, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Dozens of opposition figures and civil society activists are being prosecuted under a presidential decree officially aimed at combatting “fake news” but subject to a very broad interpretation denounced by human rights defenders.
Others, including opposition leaders, have been sentenced to heavy prison terms in a mega-trial of “conspiracy against state security.”
In 2025, Tunisia fell 11 places in media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 118th to 129th out of 180 countries.
