Diplomats trying to prevent escalation in Israel-Hezbollah conflict amid bombing campaign in Lebanon

The 79th United Nations general assembly is to open on Tuesday morning amid a massive bombing campaign in southern Lebanon that has brought Israel and the Shia militant group Hezbollah closer than ever to all-out war, despite fevered diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict.

On Monday, diplomats huddled behind the scenes at the United Nations headquarters and midtown Manhattan hotels for bilateral and ministerial meetings on issues from Atlantic Ocean ecology to Ukraine’s energy supply, before what the UN bills as its own “Super Bowl of global diplomacy”.