Lebanon on Monday received a preliminary report from France regarding last year's massive port blast in Beirut that killed and wounded thousands, judicial officials said.

The officials said the French report is useful for the ongoing investigation in Beirut over the August blast, which decimated the country's main port and caused severe damage to surrounding areas. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, declined to give details about the report.

A senior Hamas official said Monday that Israel must halt its "aggression" in both Gaza and Jerusalem if it wants calm following an 11-day war earlier this month.

Khalil al-Haya spoke after meeting with Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, who visited Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a trip aimed at shoring up an informal cease-fire brokered by Cairo.

Lebanese composer and singer Samir Sfeir has said he is holding no grudge against the authorities in Saudi Arabia after he was detained for around 50 days in the kingdom.

Sfeir, who had residency in the kingdom for five years, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Lebanon that he is now banned from returning after being deported.

For hours, French investigators on Thursday questioned fugitive former auto magnate Carlos Ghosn in the Lebanese capital as a witness in a probe over Renault's pollutant emissions, according to two Lebanese officials.

A prosecution official and a judge said the French questioned Ghosn before leaving Beirut later in the day. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media. The officials said Lebanese investigators sat through the questioning of Ghosn. There was no immediate comment from French officials.

Former auto magnate Carlos Ghosn expects to get hit with at least one preliminary charge when French investigators travel to Beirut to question him over suspicions of financial misconduct. But he insists he's done nothing wrong and hopes their investigations are eventually dropped.

Lavish parties in Versailles, questionable payments to an Omani car dealer, suspected tax evasion -- these are the subjects of multiple investigations in France involving Ghosn's actions as the head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi car alliance. They were opened amid new scrutiny of Ghosn after his shocking 2018 arrest in Japan.

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has backed his former colleague American lawyer Greg Kelly's insistence he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Ghosn said in an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut on Tuesday that Kelly, a former Nissan executive vice president, had sought only legal methods to arrange post-retirement compensation for his boss.

Yemeni officials demanded answers Wednesday after an Associated Press report highlighted a mysterious air base being built on a Yemeni island in one of the world's crucial maritime chokepoints.

A lawmaker asked Yemen's internationally recognized government if the United Arab Emirates built the facility as data in the AP report links the UAE to the construction.

World powers have opened a fifth round of talks with Iran aimed at bringing the United States back into the landmark 2015 nuclear deal meant to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining an atomic bomb, with both sides expressing hope that it might be the final series of negotiations.

The talks in Vienna came the day after the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, struck a last-minute agreement with Tehran for a one-month extension to a deal on surveillance cameras at Iran's nuclear sites. The issue wasn't directly related to the ongoing talks on the nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, but if Iran had not agreed it could have seriously complicated the discussions.

A mysterious air base is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen that sits in one of the world's crucial maritime chokepoints for both energy shipments and commercial cargo.

While no country has claimed the Mayun Island air base in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 5.6-kilometer-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates.

Syria's foreign minister blamed Israel for mysterious attacks over more than a year targeting oil tankers heading to Syria, saying they violate international law and will not go unpunished.

Faisal Mekdad told Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV in an interview aired late Sunday that oil tankers coming to Syria now move under Russian protection. He did not provide any evidence for how Israel was behind the attacks.