Asiri Denies Saudi Arabia Delaying Arms Deal: We Will Not Back Down
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri downplayed Wednesday reports that his country froze a grant to the Lebanese army to purchase French weapons.
“The kingdom will not modify, change or back down” on the agreement, Asiri said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper.
Asiri stressed that he didn't receive any instructions in this regard.
“If the issue is technical and related to discussions between the Lebanese Army and French authorities or any other course linked to the delivery of arms, then the kingdom has nothing to do with that,” Asiri stressed
As Safir newspaper reported Tuesday that Saudi Arabia decided to freeze the deal over the rhetoric by some Lebanese officials, in particular Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, over it air-led war against Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.
French diplomatic sources said that France's chief of Staff General Jean-Pierre Bosser expressed belief that Saudi Arabia is delaying the accomplishment of the second delivery of French arms.
Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition that launched an air war on the Huthi rebels and their allies in Yemen on March 26.
Nasrallah had slammed Saudi Arabia as the source of the “takfiri ideology” in the world, vowing that it will suffer a “major defeat” in the Yemeni conflict.
Sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper Wednesday that the “Saudi grant didn't halt and the reports are baseless.”
“The delay is due to a demand by the Lebanese Army to purchase heavy weapons... which need time to be manufactured.”
As Safir said in its report that Lebanese officials were supposed to schedule a new arms delivery with French counterparts to ship the second batch of arms.
However, Army chief General Jean Qahwaji, who visited Paris at the end of May, was surprised that French officials stalled the signing ceremony.
But Qahwaji denied making any statement concerning the matter.
In April, Lebanon received the first shipment of $3 billion worth of French arms under a Saudi-financed deal to boost the country's defensive capabilities to combat terror threats, along its northeastern border in particular.
France is expected to deliver 250 combat and transport vehicles, seven Cougar helicopters, three small Corvette warships and a range of surveillance and communications equipment over four years as part of the $3 billion (2.8 billion-euro) modernization program.
It is being entirely funded by Saudi Arabia, which is keen to see Lebanon's army defend its borders against jihadist groups, particularly the IS group and al-Nusra Front.
The contract also promises seven years of training for the 70,000-strong Lebanese army and 10 years of equipment maintenance.
Since the conflict in neighboring Syria broke out in 2011, Lebanon has faced mounting spill-over threats, first from the millions of refugees pouring across the border and increasingly from jihadists.
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