Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that any deal to resolve the conflict in Ukraine must not compromise Moscow's security.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin as an "old friend" as the two held a series of meetings Tuesday at a time when their countries face both overlapping and differing challenges from the United States.

Ukraine on Monday urged China, a close ally of Moscow, to work towards peace in Ukraine during a visit to the country by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Given the significant geopolitical role of the People's Republic of China, we would welcome a more active role for Beijing in bringing peace to Ukraine based on respect for the U.N. Charter," Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, called on Sunday for dialogue over its weapons, days before the government is expected to approve an army plan to disarm the group.

Months after Hezbollah's devastating war with Israel and under heavy U.S. pressure, Lebanon's government this month tasked the army with drawing up a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Monday said they had fired a missile at a tanker in the Red Sea, days after their prime minister was killed in an Israeli attack.

Israel said Sunday its forces had killed the spokesman of Hamas' armed wing in a strike on Gaza a day earlier, the latest fatality in the group's senior ranks in the nearly two-year war.

The Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, Eyal Zamir, vowed Sunday to target Hamas leaders abroad after the military killed Abu Obeida, spokesman for the group's military wing, in Gaza the day before.

Violent Israeli airstrikes on Sunday targeted the Ali al-Taher hills in the southern area of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, an area that has been bombed several times since the November ceasefire.

The Israeli army claimed the strikes hit a site run by Hezbollah.

Yemen's Houthi rebels said Saturday their prime minister had been killed in an Israeli air strike earlier this week, the most senior official known to have died in a series of attacks during the Gaza war.

An Israeli army statement later Saturday confirmed the strike and that it had killed Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser Al-Rahawi.

Dozens of families have fled a historically Alawite neighborhood of Damascus under threat of death, amid fears for the community's future in the Syrian capital under Islamist rule, residents told AFP.