The surprise announcement was made during a televised national address as French President François Hollande was visiting Saudi Arabia. Sleiman called the $3 billion in aid "the largest grant ever given to the country’s armed forces", but he did not provide any further details.
“I am happy to tell the Lebanese people that the Saudi ruler will give a grant of $3 billion to strengthen the army,” Sleiman said, according to a quotes published by the state news agency. “The Saudi grant will allow the Lebanese army to purchase weapons from France.”
He said that he hopes Paris will quickly meet the initiative.
- Fabrice Hermel, a spokesman for the French president, said he did not yet have details.
Fragile in the best of times, Lebanon is struggling to cope with the fallout from the civil war in neighboring Syria. That conflict has deeply divided Lebanon along confessional lines, and paralyzed the country’s ramshackle political system to the point that it has been stuck with a weak and ineffectual caretaker government since April.
It has also seen a wave of deadly bombings and shootings that have fueled fears that Lebanon, which suffered a brutal 15-year civil war of its own that only ended in 1990, could be slowly slipping back toward full-blown sectarian conflict. The latest violence took place on Friday, when a car bomb killed a senior Sunni politician who had been critical of Syria and its Lebanese ally, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
- In a nod to those concerns, Sleiman said in his address that “Lebanon is threatened by sectarian conflict and extremism,” and said that strengthening the army is a popular demand.
(FRANCE 24 with AP) france24.com
29/12/13
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Saudi Arabia to give Lebanese army $3 bln...
ReplyDeleteSaudi Arabia is giving the Lebanese national army $3 billion in aid, Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman said on Sunday, describing it as the largest grant given to the armed forces in Lebanon’s history.
“The king of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is offering this generous and appreciated aid of $3 billion to the Lebanese army to strengthen its capabilities,” Suleiman said in a televised address.
Suleiman said the Saudi funds aim in the first place to support Lebanon’s unity, and will allow the naitional army to purchase French weapons.
He also said the deal was discussed during the visit of French President Francois Hollande to Saudi capital on Sunday.
The aid pledge comes amid mounting sectarian tension in Lebanon related to the war in neighbouring Syria.
Lebanon's powerful Shiite Hezbollah movement is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces against an uprising that many Lebanese Sunnis support.
Saudi Arabia is a leading backer of the opposition battling Assad's regime, which has relied on strong support from Shiite Iran.
Suleiman's announcement comes two days after a bombing that targeted a leading critic of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime, though the Saudi aid pledge did not appear to be directly related.
He said the money would be used to buy weapons from France, pointing to the "historical ties that link it to Lebanon and the depth of the military cooperation between the two countries".
Suleiman did not specify what weapons would be purchased.
Lebanon's armed forces are woefully under-equipped and face multiplying security challenges, underlined by the bomb attack on Friday and rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel on Sunday that prompted return fire from the Jewish state.
(with Reuters and AFP)
29/12/13
Ryad va octroyer 3 milliards de dollars en soutien à l'armée libanaise...
ReplyDeleteL'Arabie saoudite s'est engagée à octroyer trois milliards de dollars à l'armée libanaise, faiblement équipée, pour se procurer des armes de France, a annoncé dimanche le président de la République, Michel Sleimane.
"Il s'agit de l'aide la plus importante dans l'histoire du Liban et de l'armée libanaise", a-t-il précisé dans une allocution diffusée sur les télévisions libanaises. "Le roi saoudien a décidé d'octroyer une importante aide au Liban d'une valeur de trois milliards de dollars alloués à l'armée libanaise pour renforcer ses capacités", a indiqué M. Sleimane. "Les armes seront achetées de l'Etat français dans les plus brefs délais vu les relations historiques qui le lient au Liban et à l'étroite coopération militaire entre les deux pays", a poursuivi le chef de l'Etat. Selon lui, cette aide "fera l'objet de discussions entre le roi saoudien Abdallah et le président français François Hollande", actuellement en visite officielle à Ryad. Le président n'a pas précisé quel type d'armes seront achetés de Paris. Cette aide "permettra à l'armée de mener à bien sa mission", a-t-il dit alors que l'institution militaire fait face à plusieurs défis sur le plan de la sécurité. Outre la mission de défense, l'armée au Liban est également en charge du maintien de l'ordre aux côtés de la police et a dû intervenir lors des violences sectaires à travers le pays. Elle est faiblement équipée en armement modernes et ne dispose que de transports de troupe américains, des chars soviétiques et des canons mais pas d'hélicoptères de combat. (Belga)
http://www.rtl.be/info/monde/france/1058342/ryad-va-octroyer-3-milliards-de-dollars-en-soutien-a-l-armee-libanaise
29/12/13