It doesn't look good for this summer

It would appear that the pieces are being put into place for a summer war in the Middle East.

1. Syria are threatening Israel in the Golan Heights. "If Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights before September, Syrian guerillas will immediately launch "resistance operations" against the Golan's Jewish communities, a top official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party told the New York Sun in an interview. The Baath official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said Damascus is preparing for Israeli retaliation following Syrian guerilla attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September. He said that in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria has the capability to fire "hundreds" of missiles at Tel Aviv." Read more here

2. "A member of the Syrian parliament, Muhammad Habash, confirmed on Tuesday that his country was actively preparing for war with Israel, expected to break out in the summer...In an interview with Al Jazeera, Habash said it was no secret that the Syrian military was arming itself for the upcoming confrontation with the IDF." Read more here

3. The war at the "refugee" camp in north Lebanon rages on; as "Militants fired Katyusha rockets at Lebanese villages yesterday, escalating their eight-week-old battle with the army at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon...Security sources said Al Qaeda-inspired Fatah Al Islam fighters fired about a dozen of the 107mm rockets which landed several miles away from the Nahr El Bared camp, killing one civilian and wounding another...Fighting between the army and militants has killed at least 217 people since May 20, making it the country's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.", read more here

4. Iran may be threatening Bahrain, read more here

5. Beirut’s Daily Star newspaper reports that Damascus has ordered its citizens in Lebanon to return home by July 15, citing concerns over the “security situation in Lebanon.” And a report in the government controlled Syrian daily al-Thawra said Syrian students studying in the public Lebanese University and the Beirut Arab University were authorized to enroll in public Syrian universities for the upcoming academic year 2007-2008.

Take a look at the BBC for information on these stories and what do you find? Here is the BBC Middle East Home Page and they seem more concerned with "Iran and the UN's nuclear watchdog agree to new inspections at a key site and hail a framework for talks."