BEIRUT: Future Movement official Mustafa Alloush launched a scathing attack over the weekend on Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, saying his statements on Al-Qaeda in Lebanon these served Damascus.

“Ghosn’s statements serve the Syrian regime and these might have been coordinated so that they might be used as a justification by the Syrian regime as a way to get out of its crisis,” Alloush told Future News, a statement from the Future Movement said Saturday.

“There is no defense minister in Lebanon. He is a follower of the Syrian regime,” Alloush added.

Last Monday, Ghosn stood firm on his statement earlier this month that Al-Qaeda members were entering Lebanon under the cover of Syrian opposition activists, rejecting March 14 criticisms that his remarks were meant to serve the Assad government. Following Ghosn’s initial statement, a twin suicide car bomb attack struck security services buildings in the Syrian capital Damascus last week, killing 44 people and wounding more than 100. Syria has blamed Al-Qaeda for the attack.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel denied again Friday that Al-Qaeda members were operating in Lebanon, rebutting Ghosn’s claims that the group’s militants were sneaking into the country under the guise of Syrian dissidents.

Alloush said the opposition movement would take steps on the matter, adding that “there is the possibility that we might question the minister in Parliament and we might even reach the point where we call for the withdrawal of confidence in the minister.”