Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has named Northern Lebanon a, ” hotbed for extreme Islamic groups.” The attacks then resulted in Syria’s decision to deploy masses of troops to the Lebanese frontier in a effort to secure the border.

On the other hand, Lebanese supporters and Sunni Muslim leaders believe that Syria is to blame for the attacks. Saad Hariri, leader of the Future Sunni movement, stated, ” [Syria] infiltrated extremists to north Lebanon to carry out terrorist attacks targeting the Lebanese army and civilians.” Furthermore, he said that planting the idea that Lebanon challenges Syria’s security is merely ” settling the atmosphere for Syrian intervention in Lebanon.”

Lebanon fears that it will lose American security backing and be subjected to Syrian invasion in the near future, and possibly without adequate warning. However, most Middle East experts agree that Syria would avoid invading Lebanon without peace talks first and they point to Syria’s recent negotiations with Iran and Israel and wonder, ” would Syria mess with a good thing by invading Lebanon and angering the West?”

Venus Vahedi

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