France will provide weapons and military equipment to Lebanese army for an amount of $3 billion 1210

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Defence & Security News - France
 
 
Sunday, October 12, 2014 04:02 AM
 
France will provide weapons and military equipment to Lebanese army for an amount of $3 billion.
France will soon provide weapons and military equipment to the Lebanese Army as part of a $3 billion Saudi grant to help it fight jihadists encroaching into Lebanon from Syria, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. Le Drian said France would provide land, air and naval equipment.
     
France will soon provide weapons and military equipment to the Lebanese Army as part of a $3 billion Saudi grant to help it fight jihadists encroaching into Lebanon from Syria, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. Le Drian said France would provide land, air and naval equipment.
M113 armoured personnel carrier of Lebanese army
     
“This project will be concluded and we have already started by renovating the Lebanese Army’s helicopter fleet,” he said.

The contract, which was initially agreed in December, has been under intense scrutiny for several months as negotiations between Paris and Riyadh over the deal have proved more complicated than first imagined.

The deal has been in preparation for almost a year. Last December, François Hollande and King Abdullah announced from Riyadh that Saudi would finance the purchase of French weapons for the Lebanese army, to the amount of three billion dollars.

In September, Iran has announced the supply of military equipment to the Lebanese army to be used in fighting Muslim extremist groups. The Lebanese army has been fighting Muslim militants near the border with Syria for the past two months.

The U.S. has also recently sent several arms shipments to Lebanese troops to fight extremists.

Lebanon's army will soon receive also military equipment as part of a $1 billion grant from Saudi Arabia.