A Lebanese soldier stands next to M198 155mm howitzers upon the arrival of a shipment of US weapons at the Beirut port yesterday.
Agencies/Beirut
The United States delivered more than $25mn worth of military aid including heavy artillery to the Lebanese army yesterday to help it fight militant groups which have repeatedly battled with security forces near the Syrian border.
The US ambassador to Beirut, David Hale, said in a statement the weapons would be used to “defeat the terrorist and extremist threat from Syria”.
“We are fighting the same enemy, so our support for you has been swift and continuous,” Hale said at an event marking the delivery of the weapons in Beirut.
The Lebanese army has fought regular battles with armed groups including militants linked to Islamic State and the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front in areas near the Syrian border, most recently late last month when six soldiers were killed.
Hale said Lebanon was the fifth biggest recipient of US military aid. It received more than $100mn last year. Lebanese officials have warned of plans by radical Islamist groups fighting in the Syria war to seize territory in Lebanon.
While the US-backed Lebanese army has been battling hardline Islamists on the Lebanese side of the frontier, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah has been battling the same groups on the Syrian side of the border—part of its role fighting alongside Damascus in the Syrian war.
The Lebanese army, rebuilt after the country’s 1975-90 civil war, is one of the strongest institutions in the country, but it has been hamstrung by outdated weapons.
The United States has accelerated the delivery of military aid to Lebanon since last August, when Islamist militants staged a major attack in the border town of Arsal, said Nabil Haitham, a columnist in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir.
“Despite the importance of these weapons, they cannot make up for the big shortfall from which the army is suffering,” he said in a phone interview, adding that helicopters were vital.
France and Lebanon signed a $3bn Saudi-funded deal in early November to provide French weapons and military equipment, including helicopters, to the Lebanese army.
The first deliveries of the French weapons will begin in April, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in Munich yesterday.
Fabius confirmed the timeframe at a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Romain Nadal told reporters.
