UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen has warned that the Middle East could see full-scale war.
He said a fresh effort was needed to contain the current violence, or energetic diplomacy to try to bring peace.
"The picture which emerges is very dark, and apparently getting darker," he said.
"So there are reasons for real concerns in the international community."
Roed-Larsen, the current UN envoy for Lebanon-Syria issues who for many years was the top UN Mideast envoy, said "the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East has changed fundamentally over a few years".
"A few years ago, as it had been over many, many decades, the centre of gravity for all the conflicts were the Israeli-Arab conflicts," he said.
"Now, there seems to be four epicentres of conflict in the region with their own dynamics, the Iraqi issues, the Iranian issues, the Syrian-Lebanese issues, and of course the heart of hearts, the traditional conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli issue."
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