Political leaders from the opposing March 8 and March 14 factions clashed this week over the presence of Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in the country. Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn declared that Al Qaeda members had infiltrated the country, causing a backlash from the March 14 coalition, who accused him of tying Lebanon's security to Syria's and called him into questioning before Parliament.

In a televised interview, Ghosn said Al-Qaeda operatives have crossed the Lebanon-Syria border into the town of Arsaal in the Eastern Bekaa Valley, under the guise of Syrian opposition activists. His comments came before two explosions rocked the Syrian capital Damascus, killing 44 people and injuring 100. The Syrian Regime blamed the explosions on "Al Qaeda terrorists". Although the perpetrators of the explosions have not been identified, some analysts believe that Ghosn's remarks were an attempt to validate Syrian President Bashar Assad's claims that the attacks were orchestrated by Al Qaeda.

Soon after Ghosn's statement, the Syrian regime sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declaring that the terrorists had entered Syria from the Lebanese town of Arsal.

The March 14 coalition criticized Ghosn's remarks, saying that the regime's reaction indicates its refusal to acknowledge the uprising. Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that Assad "wants to portray the matter as it is a result of a terrorist conspiracy inspired from abroad." Ghosn's remarks were refuted by President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel. Marada Movement leader Suleiman Frangieh, a close ally of the Syrian regime, corroborated Ghosen's claims and accused Suleiman and Mikati of covering up the Al Qaeda presence in Lebanon. The confusion provoked MP Samir Jisr to summon Ghosn before Parliament's Defense, Interior and Municipalities committee to clarify his comments.

In Washington, Daniel Benjamin, Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State, said that groups sympathetic to Al Qaeda have in fact been operating in Lebanon for years. He did not link that to the explosions in Syria, however, and argued that that is an "entirely different matter."

The presence of Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Lebanon is not new. Indeed, over the course of the last few years, several security incidents have been blamed on various terrorist factions operating in the country. Several are in fact known to be loyal to the Syrian regime. Such was the case with Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist militant organization which engaged in a four-month battle with the LAF in the northern Palestinian camp of Nahr Al Bared in 2007. Similar incidents include the launching of rockets from South Lebanon towards Israel last November, and roadside bombings targeting UN peacekeeping forces in South Lebanon. The difficulty of enforcing the state's sovereignty throughout Lebanese territory is a contributing factor to the deteriorating security situation. Without state control, these groups effectively reign free in the country and the very serious issue of Al Qaeda's presence will remain unaddressed.