Embassy Denies Reported U.S. Objections on Tanks Deal between Lebanon, Russia
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The United States Embassy in Lebanon denied on Sunday a report saying that Washington had filed an official complaint to the Lebanese government for attempting to strike a deal with Russia on supplying the army with used T-72 tanks.
The embassy stressed in comments to Naharnet that “the report is false.”
On Saturday, As Safir newspaper reported that the U.S. filed an official complaint to the Lebanese government, the army command in particular, for attempting to strike a deal with Russia on supplying the army with the tanks, questioning Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri's decision to “diversify” the number of countries from which to obtain weapons as part of the Saudi military grant to the army.
In August, Hariri announced that Saudi Arabia has provided Lebanon's army with one billion dollars to strengthen security.
The sources had told As Safir on Saturday that the U.S. presented the Lebanese powers with documented information that “Lebanese and Russian mediators are set to make commissions worth the sum of the entire deal,” noting that the U.S. is ready to provide the army with new tanks.
The Saudi grant is worth a billion dollars, which will be directed to the army and other security agencies in Lebanon.
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, who is affiliated to Mustaqbal Movement, announced from Moscow on September 20 that the “Lebanese army will soon purchase new arms from Russia.”
Earlier in November, Saudi Arabia and France inked in Riyadh a deal to provide the Lebanese army with $3 billion worth of French weapons.
16 November 2014, 15:42
87
Assafir The not so credible source of source of lies ... Official clarification was good to hear ..but nice to see expose another cheap article from them.
16 November 2014, 17:26
34
US embassy or not, Al Safir paper or not, the LAF needs the weapons yesterday before today. Enough obstructions, enough foot dragging. When the US or Russia or China etc... are buying Uranium to build more bombs and power more nuclear-propelled warships no one raises or bats an eyebrow. The Lebanese Army's most pressing concern is to protect the people and the land from both internal and external aggressions. Now let us buy the weapons, NOW!!!
16 November 2014, 17:50
22
phoenix1, we all know of one sectarian group who can supply the Lebanese army with all kinds of weapons already available on Lebanese soil, unfortunately nowadays that sectarian group is too busy distributing those weapons to recruits into it's own private Iranian Revolutionary Guards funded militias. Remember when the Lebanese army was engaged in a life or death battle with terrorists in 2007 and was running out of ammunition, instead of offering some that same sectarian group drew red lines around the terrorists and criticized the American airlift to the army.
17 November 2014, 18:16
00
and who ended up supplying those ammunition?
btw, whenever HA helps the army, you accuse them of collusion, whenever they dont, you accuse HA of not backing the army... you simply are hypocrites and whatever you criticize about is never sincere, only pretexts.
16 November 2014, 18:28
41
As Safir is not anymore a credible newspaper like in the past. It has become nowadays like toilet or garbage papers like many other newspapers and media in Lebanon.
