Senior Lebanese officials expressed grave concern on Tuesday after neighboring Syria began massing troops along the border over the weekend.
According to a leading Lebanese newspaper, more than 10,000 Syrian troops have deployed to the northern section of the Lebanese-Syrian border since Saturday.
Damascus claims the troop build-up is part of a new effort to combat smuggling along the porous border.
But a retired Lebanese general noted that combatting smuggling is usually the job of customs agents and police, not army brigades.
Many fear that Syria's true intent is to use regular flare-ups of sectarian violence in Lebanon as justification to reoccupy its neighbor.
Syria militarily controlled Lebanon from 1976 until 2005, when the so-called "Cedar Revolution" forced Damascus to finally comply with UN resolutions for its to withdraw its forces.