Amanpour and Company

>> WELL HEZBOLLAH IS OBVIOUSLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTIES AND OF COURSE THE LARGEST MILITIA OUTSIDE OF THE LEBANESE ARMY. AND IT IS IN IN MANY WAYS DEFINING NATIONAL SECURITY BECAUSE IT REPEATEDLY HAS TAKEN POT SHOTS AT ISRAEL AND ONE OF THE TENSE FRONT LINES IS BETWEEN LEBANON AND ISRAEL TODAY. THE TRAGEDY OF LEBANON, AND I LIVED THERE FIVE YEARS DURING THE CIVIL WAR, IS THAT THE POLITICIANS WHO ARE ALSO THE OLD WAR LORDS ARE STILL FIGHTING EACH OTHER IN THE SAME THEY WAY DID IN THE 1970s AND 1980s. ONLY THIS TIME THROUGH POLITICS. AND THE COUNTRY IS DEAD LOCKED. AND IT IS INDEED A FAILING STATE. IT IS ONE OF THE GREAT TRAVESTIES. BECAUSE THIS WAS THE FIRST NASCENT DEMOCRACY. IT WAS THE ONE PLACE CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS LIVED SIDE BY SIDE, CELEBRATED THEIR RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS TOGETHER AND TODAY IT IS A COUNTRY THAT IS ALMOST BEYOND SALVATION. >> SO ROBIN, LET ME ASK YOU WHAT YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO LEBANON AND MAYBE TO IRAN. BECAUSE THERE ARE REPORTS THAT AMID ESCALATING TENSIONS IN THE REGION, THERE'S BEEN HEAVY ARTILLERY FIRE FROM LEBANON INTO ISRAEL. AND IT IS PRESUMABLY, ALTHOUGH I DON'T KNOW THAT ITS BEEN NAMED THAT YET, FROM THE SOUTH WHERE HEZBOLLAH HAD THEIR POSITIONS. THAT ON TOP OF ISRAEL NAMING AND CALLING OUT THE IRAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD COMMANDER FOR UNMANDATE VEHICLES, FOR THAT ATTACK ON THE SHIP IN WHICH TWO PEOPLE WERE KILLED A FEW DAYS AGO. HOW BADLY DO YOU THINK THAT -- WELL, HOW CLOSE DO YOU THINK WE ARE TO AN ESCALATION OF MAYBE EVEN MILITARY ACTION IN THAT, YOU KNOW, REGION THAT CAN ILL AFFORD IT? >> I THINK WE ARE AT A CROSSROADS IN THE MIDDLE EAST IN PART BECAUSE OF IRAN'S TENSIONS WITH ISRAEL. BOTH DIRECTLY AND THROUGH ITS ALLIES AND PROXIES LIKE HEZBOLLAH. WE'RE REACHING A POINT THAT OVER THE PAST YEAR, WHETHER IT IS THE, KIND OF, MARITIME TENSIONS PLAYING OUT AMONG TANKERS, ATTACKS ON TANKERS, AND BY BOTH SIDES, IS REACHING, YOU KNOW, UNPRECEDENTED POINT. WE'VE ALSO SEEN THE STRIKES ON EACH OTHERS DRONES. THERE IS A SENSE THAT IRAN HAS BECOME THE HEGEMONY IN THE REGION BECAUSE IT IS -- BUT