Not that long ago, the mere suggestion of Israel hosting a summit at which four foreign ministers from Arab countries, together with the US secretary of state, would sit around the table would have been treated as a sheer fantasy.

Australia is not a country usually associated with being at the center of great power rivalry, but the new AUKUS security partnership announced by Australia, the UK and the US positioned it right at the heart of the competition between the US and China.

Old habits die hard in the fraught relations between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah, and the pattern of their interaction never fails to carry with it the seed of escalation, planned or unintended.