After Israel’s strike in Lebanon’s capital this week, the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Thursday that its conflict with Israel had entered a new phase. Since the Israeli strike there has been worries around the Middle East that Israel’s hostilities with Iran and its allies could erupt into an all-out regional war. Officials and diplomats across the Middle East had been looking to the speech for any indication of whether Hezbollah would alter course in its long-running conflict with Israel, either by escalating its military response or seeking to lower the pressure and avoid all-out war. The speech by Mr. Nasrallah on Thursday appeared to straddle that line.

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