Report: Delivery of French Weapons under Saudi Grant Not Before March
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has officially informed Saudi officials that Lebanon will receive the first batch of French weapons after March, As Safir daily reported Saturday.
The newspaper said that Le Drian gave the information to the Saudi officials during a recent visit to Riyadh.
It quoted French diplomatic sources as saying that the defense minister said the weapons won't reach Lebanon before March.
France and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement in November for Paris to provide the Lebanese army with $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Riyadh.
The deal, first announced by former President Michel Suleiman in December last year, aims to boost Lebanon's military as it struggles to contain a rising tide of violence linked to the civil war in Syria.
The Lebanese army is generally seen as a unifying force in Lebanon, and draws its ranks from all of the country's sects. But it has struggled to contain the escalating violence since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict.
Reports in November said that Paris will begin delivering weapons to the Lebanese military in the first quarter of 2015.
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