Two U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutters have arrived in Beirut, Lebanon for a scheduled port visit, marking their arrival to the Middle East after departing the United States and transiting the Mediterranean Sea.

Fast response cutters USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146) and USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC 1147) are the newest additions to a slate of Coast Guard ships supporting U.S. 5th Fleet from Bahrain, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

Tunisian President Kais Saied early Tuesday celebrated the almost certain victory of the "yes" vote in a referendum on a new constitution that strengthens the powers of the head of state and risks the return of authoritarian rule in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

The referendum, held a year to the day after Saied sacked the government and froze parliament in what rivals have called a coup, saw at least 27.5 percent of 9.3 million registered voters cast ballots, Tunisia's ISIE electoral commission said late Monday after polls closed.

Libya is mired in a constitutional and political stalemate that has sparked increasing clashes, a dire economic situation and demonstrations across the country by frustrated citizens, a senior U.N. official said Monday.

Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee told the U.N. Security Council the overall situation in Libya remains "highly volatile," with a tense security situation, "deeply disturbing" shows of force and sporadic violence by militias engaged in political maneuvering.

Algeria's foreign minister on Monday decried Syria's decadelong suspension from the Arab League during a visit to Damascus, indicating support for the war-torn country's return to the organization under President Bashar Assad.

Syria was expelled from the 22-member group and boycotted by its neighbors after the conflict broke out in March 2011, following a heavy-handed crackdown by Assad's government on mass protests demanding reforms.

Hundreds of Palestinian lawyers held a rare street protest Monday against what they described as the Palestinian Authority's "rule by decree", condemning president Mahmud Abbas for governing without a parliament.

The Palestinian Legislative Council -- created under the Oslo Peace Accords with Israel -- has been inactive since 2007, meaning Abbas has led without a functioning parliament for nearly all of his tenure as president.

Syria's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration handed Tajikistan 146 women and children related to Islamic State group jihadists, a Kurdish official said Monday, in the first such repatriation to the ex-Soviet state.

Thousands of foreign extremists joined IS as fighters, often bringing their wives and children to live in the "caliphate" declared by the group across swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Temperatures in the Middle East have risen far faster than the world's average in the past three decades. Precipitation has been decreasing, and experts predict droughts will come with greater frequency and severity.

The Middle East is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impact of climate change — and already the effects are being seen.

Tunisians began voting Monday on a constitution seen as a referendum on President Kais Saied, whose charter would give his office nearly unchecked powers in a break with the country's post-2011 democratic trend.

Voting began at 6:00 am (0500 GMT) at some 11,000 polling stations across the North African country, and was set to close at 10:00 pm.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Cairo for talks Sunday with Egyptian officials as his country seeks to break diplomatic isolation and sanctions by the West over its invasion of Ukraine.

Israeli troops and special forces on an arrest mission exchanged fire with Palestinians barricaded in a house in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli police said. The local rescue service said two Palestinians were killed.