Struggle over Northern Lebanese Supply Routes into Syria

Sectarian violence has escalated in northern Lebanon over the past week, marked by deadly riots and sit-ins resulting from the May 12 arrest of a Sunni Islamist activist in Tripoli and the May 20 killing of a Sunni cleric at a Lebanese army checkpoint in the northern Akkar region.

These incidents are not merely signs that sectarian tensions in the Syrian crisis are spilling over into neighboring Lebanon. There is a deeper struggle — between Syria on one side and Saudi Arabia and the United States on the other — for control of northern supply routes into Syria, which have become lifelines for the Syrian insurgency. The regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad is trying to destabilize northern Lebanon to disrupt these supply routes and distract from the conflict within its own borders. Meanwhile, Riyadh and Washington are trying to funnel money and weaponry through northern Lebanon to sustain the Syrian rebellion. This contest is creating an environment in which Salafist militancy could reignite in the Levant.