Itongadol.- The anticipation in Lebanon is percolating this weekend as the country prepares to receive a large infusion of French armaments that observers hope will go a long way toward bolstering the military.
According to the English-language newspaper The Daily Star, Israel’s neighbor to the north is due to incorporate some $3 billion worth of French military hardware into the ranks of its army. The weapons transaction was subsidized by Saudi Arabia, according to Lebanese press reports.
The agreement calls for France to provide Lebanon with warplanes and cruisers. Lebanon is also due to receive armored vehicles, seven helicopters, and light aircraft.
Syria-based groups such as al-Qaida\’s Nusra Front and Islamic State have attacked Lebanon and taken soldiers captive since last summer in some of the worst spillover from the four-year civil war.
Israel has traditionally been uneasy about weapons shipments to Lebanon for fear that the arms will end up in the hands of its nemesis, the Iranian-backed Shi’ite organization Hezbollah.
Western and Arab governments, meanwhile, have long sought to counter Hezbollah’s influence by bolstering the Sunni Muslim community that has long opposed Iranian and Syrian meddling in Beirut’s internal affairs.