BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- No silver lining to return to peace and stability is in sight for the Middle East featuring bloody conflicts in the outgoing 2006 as it is heading into 2007.

    On the one hand, endless violence in Iraq has cost tens of thousands of lives, the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts are deepening hatred between the two sides, and a brief summer war between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah has jolted the region and no definitely effective solutions are available on the other.

    The turbulent situation plus the complicated internal and external factors spell no good news for the region in the next year, analysts said.

    IRAQ ON VERGE OF CIVIL WAR

    UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recently described the situation in Iraq as close to "a civil war," given the spiraling sectarian violence and fierce fighting between the U.S. troops and anti-U.S. forces, which is threatening to rip the country apart.

    Bloody conflict has claimed the lives of nearly 2,900 U.S. soldiers while over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have died in bombings, murders and fighting since the U.S.-led coalition launched the Iraq war in May, 2003.

    Worse of all, Iraq has suffered setbacks in political, economic and social reconstruction over the past year: pitched battles and suicide bombings in the streets occurred almost on a daily basis; the fledgling government plagued by a fair amount of bitter infighting has offered few effective measures to stabilize and develop the country.

    The main reason behind the ongoing violence in Iraq is a rising wave of anti-U.S. sentiments, both in Iraq and in the greater Middle East, in responding to the U.S. attempt to mold Iraq according to Washington's wills. Foreign fighters within the ranks of the Iraqi resistance is on a dramatic rise.

    To undermine the resistance, the U.S. forces has enhanced crackdown on the al-Qaida network in Iraq and other anti-U.S. forces since the beginning this year, a move that has turned out to be in vain.

    The U.S. Republican government, which has suffered a defeat in the mid-term legislative elections widely regarding as a referendum on President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, has been not so steady fast to stay the course.

    However, the Bush administration could not adopt proposals of some heavy-weight think-tanks to withdraw troops from Iraq in phases and have the security in Iraq handled by the Iraqi government, taking into consideration the U.S. Mideast strategic interests and domestic politics.

    "Staying the course" or "changing the course," each is a stark choice for President Bush. What is more complicated, the choice not only lie with Bush, but also with the Iraqis.

    PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT CONTINUES

    The year 2006 has seen no progress in international efforts to pull the the Palestinian-Israeli peace process back on track, as relations between the two sides grew even more tense after Hamas, a hardline Palestinian resistance group, won parliamentary elections early this year.

    In the first six months of 2006, Palestinian militants carried out three suicide attacks in Tel Aviv and near some of the West Bank Jewish settlements, killing 11 Israelis and injuring 56 others.

    Israelis retaliated with air-strikes, targeted killings of Palestinian militant leaders and two military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

    The current stalemate is clearly linked to the United States not paying as much attention as it should to the the Palestinian-Israeli peace process as it finds itself increasingly bogged-down in Iraq.

    Western nations' blockade against the Hamas-led government, the group's hardline position of not recognizing Israel and the one-sided policy adopted by Israel also made it harder to break the deadlock.

    It is known to all that territory dispute is the core of the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Analysts said under the current circumstances, the impasse could be broken only when the following four conditions were met: the Western nations respect Palestinians' choice of Hamas to lead their government; Hamas softens its tough stance; Israel starts negotiations with Hamas; and the United States becomes more engaged in the Middle East peace process and deals with Israel and the Palestinians in a more balanced way.

    But history tells us that to meet the four requirements is an almost mission impossible.

    PALESTINIAN INTERNAL RIFT

    A death toll of more than 150 people makes the year 2006 the bloodiest one in the history of Palestinian internal conflict since the founding of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994.

    The internal rift is a direct result of an increasingly fierce conflict between a fledging Hamas-led government and the long-dominant Fatah.

    Amid the deadlock of the Palestinian-Israel peace process, Hamas swept to power in the January parliamentary elections, ending the half-century dominance by Fatah in Palestinian politics.

    The result also led to diplomatic and financial embargoes on the Hamas-led government by Israel and the West, which in turn triggered grave financial crisis on the Palestinian territories.

    The Palestinians' income in 2006 was only half of that in 2000;the high unemployment has shrank productivity on Palestinian territory; and many Palestinians had to sell their treasures to scrape a living.

    Amid the hardship, the contradiction between Hamas and Fatah sharpened, leading to a violent political situation that had rarely been seen before.

    Hamas and Fatah have so far failed to form a unity government as the they do not see eye-to-eye on certain political goals, especially on recognition of Israel. Hamas has refused to recognize Israel.

    Therefore, it is widely believed that it will take a long time for the two Palestinian groups to iron out their differences to achieve internal unity.

    ISRAELI-LEBANESE WAR

    The recent summer war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas was virtually a continuation of the century-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict and part of the confrontations between Israel and the Arab world.

    During the 34-day war triggered by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, Israel launched air, land and sea offensives against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, killing some 2,000 Lebanese citizens, displacing nearly a million others and leveling many villages.

    The war has also seriously destroyed Lebanon's infrastructure and caused a direct economic loss of 3 billion U.S. dollars for Lebanon. Some experts asserted that the war has retrograded Lebanon by 10-15 years.

    Worse than all, the war has deepened hatred between the Lebanese government and the Hezbollah-led opposition, which is now demanding Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's resignation over its non-action during the war.

    Now, Lebanon's political crisis is far from over in view of the killing of Lebanese minister Pierre Gemayel in November and the ongoing violent protests staged by pro- and anti-government masses, in which one people has been killed and 20 others have been injured.

    Reviewing 2006 in the Middle East, bloody violence and continued conflicts were its signatures, in sharp contrast to its abundant resources and strategic significance.

    Therefore, sincere efforts from inside and outside are in dire need to restore peace in the region although it is true that there is no easy fix for such an intractable predicament there.