Near East in max alert as US destructor patrols nearby.

Saudi Arabia has called its denizens to leave Lebanon soon after the US warship "Cole" was posted near unstable Lebanon.

Saudians are quite privileged US allies and they probably know something. It could be a routinary warn like the one issued last month but its coincidence with the massacre in Gaza, the deployement of this US warship and the unexpected retreat of Turkey from Kurdistan after the USA commanded it (apparently) suggests that something is being plotted by the high Imperial circles.

But:

Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker, who is aligned with the opposition, has linked the deployment of the warships to Israel's raids in the Gaza Strip.

"The target [of US warships] is Gaza. It is aimed to allow what must happen in Gaza to happen without anyone moving to support [the Palestinians]," he said.

"This is a real threat, not merely a muscle-flexing."

Berri also said that the US military move was designed to focus attention on Lebanon "in order to cover up the massacres being committed in Gaza".

"This [US] fleet comes to back Israel so that it can complete its plan," he said.

Whatever the case, it looks like the situation is really hot right now, not the less because of the Israeli impune genocide.