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A United Nations Security Council delegation on Saturday urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.A November 2024 ceasefire was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants, but Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon.Israel has mainly said it is targeting the Iran-backed group, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.”We came to Beirut at a pivotal time for the implementation of… the cessation of hostilities agreement of November of last year,” Slovenian UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the UN body, told reporters.”All parties must uphold the November 2024 cessation of hostilities agreement, and we recognise progress achieved by Lebanon this year,” he said.”We reaffirm the council’s support for Lebanon’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence.””We also reaffirm commitment to the full implementation of Resolution 1701 in support of Lebanon’s — as well as regional — security and stability,” he added, referring to a 2006 Security Council decision that forms the basis of the current truce.Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon’s government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army is set to dismantle the group’s military infrastructure near the border by year end before tackling the rest of the country.”We support the Lebanese government’s decision to ensure the state’s monopoly of arms,” Zbogar said, also urging “intensified international support” for Lebanon’s army.The delegation met senior officials including President Joseph Aoun, and on Saturday went to conflict-hit south Lebanon near the Israeli border, visiting peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).In August, the Security Council voted to extend UNIFIL’s mandate until the end of 2026 and then withdraw the force from Lebanon by the end of the following year.The visit was a chance to “examine options for the implementation of Resolution 1701 following UNIFIL’s departure from Lebanon”, Zbogar said, adding that “this is a topic that will deserve a thorough conversation during 2026”.Zbogar also emphasised that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted”, after Lebanon’s army said it arrested six people following an attack by gunmen on UNIFIL personnel this week.Aoun told the delegation on Friday that Lebanon does not want war with Israel, days after civilian representatives from both sides held their first talks in decades.

It took Egyptian actor Mona Zaki more than a year’s preparation to take on the hardest role of her career — the iconic singer Umm Kulthum, a legend in the Arab world.Marwan Hamed’s “El Sett” (“The Lady”) premiered this week at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where Zaki told AFP about the daunting task she faced.”I was very scared at the beginning,” she said. “I didn’t know where to start.”Zaki is one of Egypt’s more recognisable actors but her fears were not unfounded.Half a century after her death, Umm Kulthum remains a towering cultural figure across the region, distinguished by her unmistakable voice, marathon-length performances, and signature scarf and sunglasses.So telling the story of a woman in a small Nile Delta village in 1898 who grew up to enrapture millions of listeners proved difficult for Zaki.The 49-year-old actor said she spent 15 months studying the singer’s physicality, posture and vocal timbre, even though she does not sing in her own voice in the film.- ‘Alive among us’ -The film does not open in Egypt but in Paris, where Umm Kulthum took to the stage in 1967 before a sold-out, frenzied Olympia.She begins “Enta Omri”, her most celebrated ballad, as a euphoric fan rushes towards her and collapses before her feet.The singer donated profits from that show to the Egyptian army for its war against Israel, which was then occupying the Sinai Peninsula.The movie then rewinds to her childhood in the Nile Delta, where her imam father would disguise her as a boy to perform religious chants in public.Her father recognised her talent early on, but still feared the ire of an early 20th-century conservative society.”There’s something unbelievable about her journey,” said director Hamed, who like many Arabs grew up mesmerised by Umm Kulthum’s singing.”She has all the elements of a unique story.”Hamed told AFP the singer remains “quite alive among us” half a century after her death.”Not only because of her voice, but also because of what her voice carried for the people,” he said.- Power, vulnerability -Listeners beyond the Arab world have also been mesmerised by Umm Kulthum, with Bob Dylan once calling her “one of my favourite singers of all time”.Her music revolutionised Arabic music, blending classical poetry with grand orchestral arrangements.But her hours-long live performances further set her apart from her peers.”When you watch her on stage, you see a lot of power, but actually behind that was a lot of vulnerability,” Hamed said.”The struggles and the obstacles that she had to go through, her power and her strength were really phenomenal.”After her covert performances in her Egyptian village, Umm Kulthum moved to Cairo in the 1920s and within a decade she rose to fame beyond Egypt.”She is the voice of the Arab people and embodies hope, strength, and resistance,” said Zaki.Hamed lauded Umm Kulthum for forcing “her choices on the audience, whether in Egypt, the Arab world, or beyond”.He said the film would be a celebration of “her legacy and how she created that legacy” for decades beyond her life.”Her journey of transformation is not a simple journey,” he said.