All eyes are on this Friday’s duelling narratives. Lebanon will see the first speech since October 7 by Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returns to the region, starting in Israel before Jordan and possibly Turkey. What does the US want? And what does Iran want?
Hezbollah has lost several dozen fighters in cross-border skirmishes since Hamas sparked the war with Israel last month. Do Tehran and its proxies want to keep the tensions on a low simmer or dial them up for a full boil? There are good arguments for both.
The US, conscious of the mounting outrage over Israel's daily bombardments of civilians in Gaza, is now calling for a humanitarian pause in that Palestinian territory. What's Washington's plan for de-escalation? Meanwhile Israel's enemies, starting with Iran, see an opportunity to scuttle a normalisation of ties with regional powers and a chance to break out of their own isolation in the name of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Produced by Maya Yataghene, Rebecca Gnignati and Louise Guibert.
