BEIRUT: Anti-Syria parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri has accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of trying to use unrest in north Lebanon to engineer a return to military control of the country, a statement received by AFP on Saturday said. “Those who export terrorism to north Lebanon do not have the right to fear the rise of extremism in Lebanon,” Hariri said during Friday’s Ramadan meal.

“(The Syrians) want to use the situation in Tripoli as a pretext to involve themselves in Lebanese affairs and use it as a means for their military and security return to Lebanon,” the Future Movement chief said.

Assad said on Thursday he had asked Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to urgently send more troops to northern Lebanon to combat what he called “extremism.”

“The Lebanese clearly remember who sent Fatah al-Islam to Nahr al-Bared and to the north and who has — and continues to — finance terrorist activities in other regions,” Hariri’s statement added.

The Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp north of Tripoli was the scene of a deadly 15-week battle last year between the army and Fatah al-Islam, which adopted an ideology inspired by al-Qaeda.

At least 23 people have been killed since violence erupted in May in Tripoli between backers of the Lebanese opposition led by the Shiite movement Hizbullah and Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian majority. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005 after three decades of military and political domination of its smaller neighbour following the assassination of former billionaire premier Rafiq Hariri, but continues to wield influence through its allies in Beirut.