Embassy Denies Reported U.S. Objections on Tanks Deal between Lebanon, Russia
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.
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