Salam Urges Quick Delivery of French Helicopters, Warns of 'Refugee Revolt'
Prime Minister Tammam Salam has called on France to speed up the delivery of military helicopters to the Lebanese army as part of the $1 billion Saudi grant to Lebanon, as he warned that Syrian refugees in the country might stage a “revolt” over the international community's insufficient support.
“We're still conducting talks to receive the helicopters in the beginning of the (army's equipment) program instead of its final stages, so that we can use (helicopter-mounted) missiles against the jihadists who are deployed in the mountains,” Salam told the French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
“Daesh is present in the Arsal region on the Lebanese-Syrian border, and if it manages to invade Lebanon, it will impose its extremism in all places,” Salam warned, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist Islamic State group which has seized vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The premier also described the airstrikes of the U.S.-led coalition against the IS and al-Nusra Front militants in Syria as "symbolic and insufficient."
"To defeat them, you must be present on the ground, but who wants to go there at this stage,” Salam added.
The first shipment of French weapons, part of a $3 billion Saudi grant, is expected to arrive in Lebanon within the next two months.
As for the kingdom's $1 billion grant to the army, a military official has revealed to al-Mustaqbal newspaper that the first shipment will begin arriving in Lebanon within “two to three weeks.”
He expected helicopters and Cessna jets to be included in this shipment.
France and Saudi Arabia signed an arms agreement at the beginning of November for Paris to provide the Lebanese military with the $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Riyadh.
The deal, which was first announced in December 2013, aims at boosting the army as it struggles to contain a rising tide of violence linked to the civil war in Syria.
In August, head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri unveiled an additional $1 billion grant to the Lebanese army, in the wake of deadly clashes between troops and jihadist militants in and around the Bekaa border town of Arsal.
As for the issue of the refugee crisis in Lebanon, Salam warned that “no one truly understands the fragility of our situation.”
“If they don't feed the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, we will face a very alarming situation, perhaps a revolt,” the PM cautioned.
Lebanon has been struggling to support the burden of around 1.5. million Syrian refugees that have been pouring into the country since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in March 2011.
The government recently introduced restrictions on refugees in an attempt to limit their numbers.
Lebanon has all but shut its frontiers to new refugees, allowing only humanitarian exceptions across, and the state is beyond its absorption capacities and urgently needs other countries to share its burden.
Earlier this week, Lebanon and the United Nations launched a plan that calls for an estimated $2.1 billion to help the country cope with the fallout from the conflict in neighboring Syria.
The Crisis Response Plan for Lebanon, announced Monday, outlines the priorities of the government and international community over the next two years.
It aims to deliver humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees while also expanding plans to invest in services and institutions in the most affected areas. It hopes to reach some 2.9 million people, half of them Lebanese.
According to Central Bank of Lebanon statistics, the country faces a financial burden of $4.5 billion because of the refugee crisis.
Y.R.
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/160096 |