Lebanon’s government and political circles are experiencing constant arguing and hesitation over the planned US and Western war against the Islamic State (IS). This has led parties in the government to take many different positions on the issue, which seemed clear in the behavior of the Lebanese authorities during the conferences held to discuss the war on IS in Jeddah on Sept. 11 and in Paris Sept. 15.

The Lebanese concerns are understandable. A large section of the Lebanese public, from different political and sectarian forces, fear the way in which the Western war will be fought against IS, especially if that war is actually confined to expelling militants from northwest Iraq without being able to entirely eliminate them or drastically reduce their ability to move to other areas. This would lead large numbers of armed extremist and terrorist groups to go from Iraq to Syria, and then into Lebanon.

Despite all the measures in the field taken by the Syrian army, by Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese-Syrian border and even by the Lebanese army at the border, military sources told Al-Monitor that IS terrorists still have infiltration and communication lines between the Syrian-Iraqi borders and Lebanon. They still have the ability to secure the movement of people, weapons and ammunition, specifically from the Islamic State capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa to "its Lebanese capital" in Arsal, northeastern Lebanon.

This was evident in the battles that erupted on Aug. 2 between IS militants and Jabhat al-Nusra on the one hand, and units of the Lebanese army in the northeastern region on the other.