Recent media reports that Syria warned its nationals to flee Lebanon ahead of a major outbreak of violence and civil war there are “unfounded,” Lebanon’s Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt told the New York Sun today.

Mr. Jumblatt said rather than evacuating, Syria has been sending “thousands of so-called workers and tourists per day,” possibly ahead of an attempt to destabilize the country.

“There is no evacuation of Syrian workers. Instead thousands are coming a day, including so-called tourists. I am worried because our working sector is paralyzed, our economy is down, we have no tourism, and yet you have this strange influx of many Syrians and also many Iraqis into Lebanon,” Mr. Jumblatt said.

“I am not dismissing that Syria will start major trouble for us to delay the tribunal,” said Mr. Jumblatt, referring to a special tribunal set up by the United National Security Council to try any indicted suspects in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in a car bombing in 2005. Syria was widely blamed for the Hariri assassination.

Also the U.N. is set later this week to debate whether to deploy international monitors or forces to the Syria-Lebanese border to stem the reported flow of weapons to Hezbollah. A deployment along its borders is strongly contested by Syria.

Mr. Jumblatt is head of the Progressive Socialist Party and is widely considered one of Lebanon’s most prominent anti-Syrian politicians.

His concern for a civil war in Lebanon come after weeks of intermittent fighting that continued yesterday with the purportedly Al Qaeda-connected group Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp, located near the northern town of Tripoli. The clashes, which resulted in mass casualties, were described as the worst internal fighting since the Lebanese civil war, 17 years ago.

Mr. Jumblatt said Fatah al-Islam is aided by Syria.

“Fatah al Islam has a well known Syrian affiliation. Their camp is not far from the Syrian border. While Lebanon was under Syrian control, the Syrians were able to present Fatah al Islam with a military infrastructure. Currently, I have no doubt of weapons smuggling from Syria (to the camp),” he said.

Mr. Jumblatt’s comments follow Arab and Iranian media reports that Syria has warned its citizens to leave Lebanon by July 15 ahead of an expected “eruption” in Lebanon.

The media reports were translated and made available by the MEMRI Arabic news translation organization in a special dispatch on Sunday.

“In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon’s current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007,” the MEMRI dispatch said.

July 15 comes one day before the special U.N. meeting to discuss stationing international monitors on the Syria-Lebanon border.