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It was to the rhythm of missile exchanges between Iran and Israel that the Arab and Islamic world celebrated, on Friday, the Eid al-Fitr, which marks the breaking of the Ramadan fast. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun spoke by phone on Friday on this occasion with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. During this conversation, the head of state "condemned the involvement of certain political parties in a sabotage plot that the Emirates announced they had thwarted today" (Friday), according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency, referring to accusations against Hezbollah.

As fighting continues to rage in southern Lebanon and tensions escalate on the Iranian front, attention has turned to Riyadh on 19 March – where the Saudi capital hosted an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries. Gulf Arab states have been under Iranian missile fire since the launch of the Israeli-American offensive against Iran on 28 February. Under the pretext of targeting American interests in these countries, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have struck civilian infrastructure and urban centers, while continuing to threaten vital oil facilities. The tone of statements following the Riyadh meeting was notably firm – not only regarding missiles and drones attacks on the Gulf, but also in response to Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes, including much of the Gulf’s exports. Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud made clear his rejection of any pressure linked to the strait, stressing “the right of (Gulf) states to defend themselves against ongoing attacks.”

Among the most priceless comments I have recently heard was one made by a mouthpiece of the so-called "Resistance" appearing on a Lebanese satellite channel, who claimed that "Hezbollah is defending its land" against Israel. It would be hard to find a more brazen distortion of reality — one perpetrated by a Sunni figure who has spent several years serving as a front for the party in exchange for regular remuneration. Not a single word uttered by this "Sunni Resistance" figure contains a grain of truth. He conflates the defense of a land — which is not Hezbollah's land — with the active consolidation of Israeli occupation. The truth is straightforward: the party reopened the southern Lebanon front, once again, on direct Iranian orders that have nothing whatsoever to do with the interests of Lebanon or its people.

For some time now, a significant portion of public opinion has been accusing the army – and/or its commander-in-chief – of failing in its duty, if not outright mutinying against the government that tasked it with dismantling Hezbollah’s military arsenal. The Lebanese Army has thus become a favorite target for certain journalists, bloggers, and social media activists, even as it is admired – and nearly deified – by their counterparts in the opposing camp. The absurdity – and the sheer inadmissibility – of the situation lies in the fact that today’s admirers were yesterday’s fiercest critics, blaming the army for every ill. They accused it of “collaboration” with American “imperialism” – a clichéd label casually affixed by just about anyone to whatever they happen to dislike – in reference to military cooperation between Lebanon and the United States, even though, without American assistance, our army would have been rendered inoperative, given the paltry defense budget.

The conflict currently unfolding in Lebanon — and more broadly, across the Middle East — is doubly lethal. There are, of course, the victims first, the material damage, and their economic consequences for the world at large. But beyond that, a binary logic governs minds on both sides, and it appears far more destructive in the long run. In the usual rhetoric, wars are presented as the shortest path to resolving an intractable problem. Yet the results of the past century prove the opposite. Wars have generated a multitude of problems, whatever the justification for waging them. Military solutions are no longer sufficient to settle matters, and the political management of the post-war period — above all the American variety — has been catastrophic at best since Saigon.

As the days pass, the resurgence of military operations escalates crescendo, making the total war that the United States and Israel have been waging against the Iranian mullahs' regime since February 28 increasingly serious. And this escalation is evident on more than one level. After the elimination on March 17 of the head of Iran's National Security Council, Ali Larijani (the true strongman of the regime after the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) and Gholamreza Soleiman, commander of the Basij (the formidable machine for repressing the population), it was the turn of Intelligence Minister, Ismail Khatib, to be eliminated during an Israeli raid. His death was confirmed on Wednesday, March 18, by official authorities.