The Middle East was facing an implosion because of Israel's policy of land settlement, the journalist and broadcaster, Robert Fisk, has warned.
Mr Fisk told a meeting at the Mansion House, Dublin, that although he was "reluctant to look into a crystal ball", he saw no reason for optimism. The Oslo peace accords were effectively extinct, he told a meeting of the Irish-United Nations Association.
"I don't want to be a doom-sayer, but I can only see that we stand on the brink of a disaster," Mr Fisk said. Doyen of British journalists covering the region, Mr Fisk is also the author of In Time of War, a study of Ireland during the Emergency.
His speech on Friday night, titled "Return to Sender", described his odyssey on the trail of a fragment of Hellfire missile. The fragment was found embedded in a makeshift Palestinian ambulance on April 13th, 1996. Four children and two women were killed when an Israeli helicopter deliberately targeted the ambulance, which was passing through a UN checkpoint in southern Lebanon.
The incident happened just days before Israeli shelling, part of "Operation Grapes of Wrath", killed more than 100 people in a refugee camp at Qana. The larger disaster helped obliterate outrage over the bombing of the ambulance, Mr Fisk said.
He traced the Hellfire fragment to its US manufacturer, Lockheed-Martin. His pursuit of its justification for the use of its hardware against civilians, in direct contravention of the Geneva Conventions, ended with a cynical response.
"Frankly, the manufacturer has nothing to do with the missile," an exasperated company spokesman told Mr Fisk, adding, "We don't have any say in that [in what circumstances weapons are used]."
But an effective arms embargo could surely be placed on the bellicose Middle Eastern countries if the political will existed, Mr Fisk said, pointing to the efficacy of the seven-year-old food and medicines sanctions on Iraq.
The Irish Times Paris Correspondent, Lara Marlowe, will speak on the Algerian conflict at a meeting in Belfast tonight. It will take place at the One World Centre, Lower Crescent. Tel (08-01232) 241.879