After 22 years of military involvement in the region, Israeli troops left Lebanon and made way for United Nations peacekeepers in armoured cars.

Some 1,000 Israeli soldiers had lost their lives there in the past two decades (the fate of others, like IAF navigator Ron Arad, remains unknown) making the farewell more than a little bittersweet.

Some 30 years after it was founded and 26 after it released an “Open Message” from Beirut, Hizbollah remains a constant threat to Israel and an obstacle to peace efforts in the Middle East.

The terrorist group, formed with the backing of the Iranian Islamist revolutionaries the 1980s, began with the aim of pushing Israel out of Lebanon. But its 1985 manifesto also called for a continuous jihad until Israel was destroyed and for the creation of an Islamic republic in Lebanon.

William Hague has called on Syria to “support efforts towards a comprehensive peace with Israel”.

Mr Hague, who is in Syria for his first official visit as Foreign Secretary, also said that the British government’s position is to oppose settlement building and support Syria’s claim on the Golan Heights, which have been under Israeli control for 44 years.

It is tempting to lump the unrest sweeping the Arab world this week into one tidal wave, but the scenario in each country is unique.

A radical Islamic preacher who was last week sentenced to life behind bars for terrorism charges has selected a Hizbollah leader as his defence lawyer.

Omar Bakri, who was sentenced in absentia but captured by security officials just days later in Libya, has appointed Hizbollah deputy Nawwar Sahili to represent him in a retrial.

No court date has been set yet, but under Lebanese law a retrial is necessary because the Syrian-born cleric failed to attend court.