Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sent a letter to Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem telling him that “Hezbollah’s decisions are left to its leadership in Lebanon,” sources told An-Nahar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

“This is what he (Khamenei) used to practice with the late Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” the sources added.

An Aegean Airlines flight from Cyprus’ Larnaca to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport was unexpectedly diverted through Lebanese airspace on Wednesday morning due to severe winter weather, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

“The passengers were not informed in real time that the aircraft had crossed into the territory of a country officially at war with Israel,” the channel noted.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa said Wednesday that Israel differentiates between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.

"The negotiations with the Lebanese government and the war on Hezbollah are two separate things to Israel," Issa told reporters in a press conference after a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri and the American Task Force for Lebanon.

A Sofia court on Wednesday refused to extradite a shipowner wanted by Lebanon over a devastating blast at Beirut's port in 2020.

Lebanon wants Bulgaria to extradite Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot, over the disaster.

Turkey is mediating between Syria and Hezbollah on the one hand and between Syria and Iran on the other, which reflects Ankara's attempt to control the dynamics of a delicate regional phase characterized by rapidly shifting balances, a media report said.

A well-informed source told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper that Turkey has succeeded in recent weeks in bringing together a high-ranking official from the new Syrian regime and a prominent Hezbollah official in meetings held repeatedly behind the scenes. Ankara has also hosted high-ranking officials from Syria and Iran.

Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji told Wednesday his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that he can only meet him in a neutral country but not in Iran, after the latter invited him to visit Tehran.

Rajji said, in a letter to Araghchi, that his refusal to visit Iran is because of the circumstances which are not currently favorable and not because he doesn't want to hold talks with Iran.

The main meeting between President Joseph Aoun and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman on Tuesday included in-depth discussions on various issues, with Aoun providing a detailed explanation of the Lebanese situation, particularly in the South, in addition to the work of the Mechanism committee and the ongoing Israeli attacks, media reports said.

“Given the Sultanate's role and its strong relations with various countries in the region, especially the United States and Iran, the discussion addressed the possibility of Muscat contributing to facilitating Lebanese-Israeli negotiations by playing a mediating role to bridge the gaps and push towards practical results,” the Nidaa la-Watan newspaper reported on Wednesday.

French Special Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian met Wednesday with Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel as he visits Lebanon to prepare for a conference to support the Lebanese Army.

Le Drian arrived Monday in Beirut and met with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Foreign Minister Joseph Rajji, Army chief Rodolphe Haykal, former PSP leader Walid Jumblat, and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

Every evening as the sun drops behind Beirut's concrete skyline, Loubna Hamdan steps onto her rooftop and whistles. A flutter of wings follows. Dozens of pigeons — white, speckled, chestnut, black — circle above her, catching the day's last light. Here, the 36-year-old office worker has found an unexpected refuge.

Hamdan never imagined she would keep pigeons. The interest began a decade ago through her husband, Ibrahim Ammar, who has raised birds since childhood. She admired how calmly they settled on him and how he always sensed when one was missing.

The U.S. has still not agreed to a visit by Lebanon's President and Army chief, al-Akhbar newspaper said Tuesday.

The pro-Hezbollah daily said that the U.S. would rather exert more pressure on Lebanon and would not welcome President Joseph Aoun and Army chief Joseph Haykal before Lebanon meets the American conditions.