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What is going on beneath the surface in the Levant?

The other day, Iran's republican guard were frantically looking for whoever bombed a shipment of arms to Hezbollah.

Syria's President Assad lost a general linked to Hezbollah, the Syrian nuclear programme, and Iran, reportedly, to a sniper firing onto a beach from far away at sea.

Syrian ministers, in Iran at the moment, have been talking to Israelis about a peace deal. Some have suggested they are also acting as a cut-out to convey French and European proposals to the Iranian leadership. In Tehran there is clearly a struggle going on about relations with Hezbollah and over the nuclear issue.

Wassup? One side of me would like to believe that the Israelis are springing that trap the Syrians were trying to get Olmert to walk into of a peace deal whilst still under threat, and turning it back on Assad. A second possibility, clearly, is that someone in Iran or Hezbollah is playing a very dangerous game of creating the conditions for escalated effort, and a third is that someone else is out to remove or neuter the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah link. Have a look and a think yourself, all suggestions welcome.

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