Since both countries had tested nuclear weapons only three years earlier, the confrontation, which dragged on for months, was, to put it mildly, an alarming one.

自从两个国家仅仅是在三年前才开始进行的核试验以来，二者之间拖延了数月的对抗——说得温和一点——就是一个令人担忧的问题。

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It has been shown by history that on the Middle Eastissue, biased and short-sighted mediation would only escalate tension, harm mutual trust, trigger confrontation and lead to endless troubles.

历史表明，在中东问题上，任何偏袒和短视的调解行动只会加剧矛盾，有害互信，引发对抗，后患无穷。

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For months, the Justice Department and Apple have been trading heated rhetoric and lurching toward this very confrontation, only to back away.

几个月里，司法部和苹果公司一直在用激烈的言辞相互指责，并在摇摆中逐渐走向今天这样的对抗，不过后来又各自退后。

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Confrontation will only lead to further confrontation.

BBC: 'Close to danger': Voices from Moscow

Yet it is one thing to say that reform is required, another to conclude that confrontation is the only option.

ECONOMIST: Europe isn��t working

And when many might have succumbed to the pressure of their peers to take an easier path, less fraught with conflict and confrontation, she kept walking straight along the only path she saw could create the changes Britain so needed.

FORBES: Margaret Thatcher: An Icon Of Leadership Courage