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Syria-based jihadi groups are gearing up for a major offensive deep into Lebanese territory along the eastern border with Syria to achieve two main goals: securing new supply routes and establishing a foothold as a prelude to setting up an Islamic emirate in Lebanon, analysts and military experts said, The Daily Star reported.

According to retired Lebanese Army generals, ISIS and the Nusra Front, entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, have long been preparing for such an attack, but have been hampered by bad weather conditions, particularly the severe blizzards that hit Lebanon in recent months.

“The two militant groups are just waiting for favorable weather conditions to launch their attack, which could happen in the second half of March,” they said.

Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese Army general and an expert on terrorism, said a major attack on Lebanon by Daesh, Arabic acronym for ISIS, and the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, was inevitable because the two militant groups weren’t planning to come to Lebanon for tourism purposes.

“Daesh and the Nusra Front have been preparing military plans to attack Lebanon for quite some time. They have been militarily surveying areas on the eastern border in search of a weak belly where the Lebanese Army does not exist,” Jaber told The Daily Star.

“These tafkiri groups are not waiting for the snow to melt. They will strike when they deem the conditions are fit for their attack,” said Jaber, director of the Beirut-based think tank, the Middle East Center for Political Studies and Research.