One of the reasons that the bitter fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has been so difficult to halt is that it is a symptom of much deeper fault-lines in the region.
Many analysts see it as part of a wider conflict that pits the United States against Iran and Syria. But the crisis has also highlighted some fundamental shifts within the Arab world.
Washington is Israel's close ally. Iran is one of Hezbollah's major backers. Inevitably then, this crisis serves to accentuate tensions between Washington and Tehran. Locked in a stand-off over Iran's nuclear programme, the summer months were expected to be dominated by a rising crescendo of pressure on Tehran to constrain its nuclear ambitions or, possibly, to face some serious international pressure.
Instead, international diplomacy has been forced to confront the fighting across the Israeli-Lebanese border. The controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, if not forgotten, has certainly been pushed to the sidelines.
A great deal of ink has already been used trying to ascertain why Hezbollah actually mounted the raid into Israel where it seized the two Israeli soldiers.
Was this, some argue, an operation ordered by Tehran precisely to divert attention from the nuclear controversy? There is no hard evidence either way. But the relationship between the Iranians and Hezbollah is close and long-standing.
