posted July 25, 2006 02:22 AM              

Former Nordland University (Norway) associate professor, Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar writes: As Israeli planes pound the Lebanese infrastructure to sunder, as the Palestinians spend their days and nights in inhumane conditions and under siege, as people in 20 Israeli towns sleep in bomb shelters, Israel threatened to widen the conflict by attacking Syria.

According to Baztab.com, an Iranian online newspaper, the Israeli government has given Syria 72 hours to handover the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah or face the consequences.

Iran already has declared that any attack on Syria will be considered an attack on the Muslim world (i.e. Iran and others).

If Israel attacks Syria, Iran will enter the fray, which will bring in the US, which will involve Iraq and the Persian Gulf countries. In other words any attack on Syria may start a regional war that may engulf the whole region, sending the price of the crude oil to unimaginable levels.

Is it possible that a small border skirmish turn into a regional war?

The answer is yes.

The First World War started by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne. But as historians tell us now, the assassination was an excuse to start a war. The political/military situation was such that if the assassination hadn’t occurred the opposing countries would have found another excuse to start the war.

Similarly, the situation in the Middle East has been developing in such a way that even if Hamas hadn’t captured the Israeli soldier, Israel would have invaded Gaza anyway.

This article deals with the reasons behind Israel’s invasion of Gaza and Lebanon....
http://www.vheadline.com/printer_news.asp?id=64163