Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani attends a press conference at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, July 31, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Lebanon‘s foreign ministry reprimanded Tehran’s ambassador to Beirut on Thursday over comments alleging that plans to disarm Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah were a “conspiracy.”

Hezbollah is under mounting pressure to relinquish its arsenal after a 2024 conflict with Israel badly weakened it and left much of southern Lebanon in ruins.

President Joseph Aoun is expected to begin talks with the group on disarmament, seen for years as a taboo subject because of the group’s sway over the Lebanese state.

On April 18, Iran‘s Ambassador to Beirut Mojtaba Amani posted on X that “the disarmament project is a clear conspiracy.”

“We in the Islamic Republic of Iran are aware of the danger of this conspiracy … we warn others not to fall into the trap of enemies,” he wrote.

On Thursday, Lebanon‘s foreign ministry said it had summoned Amani “due to his recent public stances” and that top ministry official Hani Shmaytelli “informed him of the need to adhere to diplomatic protocols … on the sovereignty of states and non-interference in their internal affairs.”

Amani told Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed on Wednesday that he had been summoned specifically over the X post, but that he had missed that first appointment — resulting in him being summoned again on Thursday.

Criticism of Iran by top Lebanese officials was unusual for years, particularly given Tehran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah.

Last year, then-prime minister Najib Mikati made a rare rebuke to Iran and said Amani should be summoned over reported comments by a senior Iranian official.

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The entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

As we mark Yom HaShoah this year, three Holocaust films stand out.

The first is a gripping drama about the first Jewish escape from a death camp. The World Will Tremble is directed by Lior Geller and features excellent acting by Oliver-Jackson Cohen, who plays Solomon, a Jew who makes an unlikely escape from Chelmno. The cast of Jews and Germans is all stellar but Geller, who wrote and directed the film, is the real star. Geller crafted a gripping film that soaks you in a bath of horror and despair only to embrace you with a towel of freedom and hope. It is an impressive movie that is full of heart, and tells a story that is not well known.

UnBroken is a documentary that shares the seemingly implausible story of seven Jewish siblings who survived the Holocaust, largely due to gentile farmers who chose to hide them. It is directed with deft and passion by Beth Lane, who goes to Germany to see the places where her family, including her mother, hid.

Unbroken explains how Lane’s grandmother was extremely daring, and when she loved a Christian man, she got him to convert. There is some unexpected humor toward the beginning of the film, and at a time when few survivors are alive, it is a blessing to see a film in which some appear and are completely cogent. The film is also based on the writings of Alfons, one of the seven siblings who survived. Was that result due to luck, kindness of farmers, or the work of God? The film is not overly preachy and allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions.

Lane’s film is an exquisite look at how the morality of two people can impact more than 70 lives, as the siblings have children and grandchildren. At one point, Lane asks if young people today would risk their lives to hide her. We can never really know what one would really do, but I suspect that few would risk their lives to save strangers.

Both The World Will Tremble and UnBroken would be excellent choices to show high school or college classes.

And if you want to learn about something you most certainly haven’t heard of, none other than the iconic Martin Scorsese has done an episode of his series The Saints that involves an unexpected hero of the Holocaust. Available on Fox Nation, the episode tells of Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest who started the first Christian radio station in Poland. Interestingly, Kolbe at one time preached antisemitism, believing that the sick conspiracy book The Protocols of The Elders of Zion was actually true.

But that did not stop him from doing something unthinkable when the Gestapo sent him to Auschwitz. When one Jew escaped, a Nazi decided 10 would have to die. When Kolbe heard that one Jewish man cried that he had a wife and child, Kolbe asked the Nazi if he could be killed instead. He agreed. And a Jewish man named Franciszek Gajowniczek was saved, and lived until 1995 and attended the canonization of Kolbe.

There is not much dialogue, but the acting of Milivoje Obradovic is strong as Kolbe, who isn’t dramatic, doesn’t yell and chooses his fate to die for a Jew as if it is a totally normal request, even though the Nazi seems dumbfounded.

It is unclear whether or not he realized The Protocols of The Elders of Zion was a lie, or he simply realized that the barbarity of the Holocaust was an affront to God. Earlier in the episode, as a child, he says he wants to be pure and a martyr and may have been affected by his father’s death.

At a time when some people think they know all of the Holocaust stories already out there, here are three new ones — and all are worth telling.

The author is a writer based in New York.

The post On Yom HaShoah, Three New Holocaust Films Are Worth Watching first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends an interview with Reuters at the presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria, March 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Britain on Thursday lifted assets freezes on Syria’s defense and interior ministries, and a range of intelligence agencies, reversing sanctions imposed during Bashar al-Assad’s presidency.

The West is rethinking its approach to Syria after insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ousted Assad as president in December after more than 13 years of civil war.

A notice posted online by the British finance ministry said the Syrian Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, and General Intelligence Directorate were among 12 entities no longer subject to an asset freeze.

The notice did not set out reasons for the de-listing.

In March, the government unfroze the assets of Syria’s central bank and 23 other entities including banks and oil companies.

The British government has previously stressed that sanctions on members of the Assad regime would remain in place.

The post UK Lifts Sanctions Against Syria’s Defense Ministry, Intelligence Agencies first appeared on Algemeiner.com.