The outlook for the Middle East depends on three cantankerous old men

By Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent, The Economist

When the Gaza war began in late 2023 even some Israeli generals thought it would be finished within two or three months. Few observers thought it would drag on for more than a year. Fewer still predicted the swift decapitation of Hizbullah, the Shia militia based in Lebanon, or the back-and-forth bombardment between Iran and Israel. During 2024, assumptions that had seemed to govern the region for decades collapsed within months.