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Fears in Lebanon rise over Western plans to defeat IS

Lebanese officials are concerned that a Western-led offensive against the Islamic State will not succeed in destroying the organization but simply move it closer to Lebanon’s border, and ultimately into the country itself.
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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.

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