Syrian authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of a paramilitary leader whose forces backed ousted leader Bashar al-Assad during the country's war, and who is accused of being the main culprit in a massacre of nearly 250 civilians, shortly after a Lebanese media report said the man was “kidnapped” from his house in Lebanon’s Mansourieh.

"The intelligence services have arrested Ali Kayali, who also went by the name Mihrac Ural, the main suspect in the Banias massacre of 2013, while he was attempting to flee across the border," state news agency SANA said.

The visit of Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to Beirut, scheduled for Thursday, comes primarily to support the government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, diplomatic sources in Washington told Al-Jadeed television.

President Joseph Aoun on Thursday threw his support behind Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad following the complaint that was filed against her by a pro-Hezbollah lawyer.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold a phone call with President Joseph Aoun at 7:00 PM Thursday, media reports said.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Claude Ghanem has decided to dismiss the complaint filed by pro-Hezbollah lawyer Hassan Bazzi against Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad, MTV reported on Thursday.

Israeli opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot, Prime Miniter Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival in upcoming elections, has revealed that Israel could have executed the 2024 pager attacks against Hezbollah much earlier and on a far larger scale, but claimed that Netanyahu delayed its execution.

"I pressured him to shift the focus of operations to the northern front, but he hesitated and was afraid to take that step," said Eisenkot, a former army chief who also served as a minister in Netanyahu’s war cabinet.

A visiting senior United Nations official reaffirmed the body's commitment to stability in Lebanon as the mandate of its peacekeeping force in the country is set to expire this year.

Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix met officials as well as representatives of countries contributing to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which counts some 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Iran on Wednesday, warning: "If Iran attacks us, it will receive a blow it never imagined."

"As long as I am Prime Minister, I will not allow Iran to become a nuclear state," he told the Israeli army radio.

President Joseph Aoun has received a phone call from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, during which they discussed the current situation in the region in light of recent developments, the Presidency said on Wednesday.

“There was agreement on the necessity of supporting diplomatic solutions as the best means to put an end to the conflicts in the region,” the Presidency added.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State has reiterated that the funds Hezbollah claims to have received from Iran simply do not exist.