Along the Strait of Hormuz and the villages of southern Lebanon, the ancient tension between the negotiating table and the battlefield has reasserted itself with fresh urgency. The United Arab Emirates reports that Iran struck one of its oil tankers even as both nations spoke of progress in governing the strait's future — a contradiction that defines the fractured diplomacy of West Asia in this moment. Regional powers, sensing that words alone cannot hold the line, have begun binding themselves into new defense arrangements, while on the Lebanese border, soldiers moved through the night to bui