Report: Army Chief to Visit US, UK for Humanitarian Army Assistance

Army chief General Joseph Aoun is expected to travel to the United States of America and later to the UK in the upcoming days in request for "humanitarian" support for the Lebanese army, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Thursday.

Reports said that “humanitarian support for the army will be an essential issue in addition to the logistical support provided by the two countries.”

The economic meltdown in Lebanon is putting unprecedented pressure on the U.S.-backed army’s operational abilities, wiping out soldiers’ salaries and wrecking morale.

Lebanon’s military is now threatened by the country’s devastating financial collapse, which the World Bank has said is likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years.

The military itself has raised the alarm, unusual for a force that is perhaps unique in the Middle East in that it largely remains outside politics.

Aoun warned in a speech to officers in March that soldiers were “suffering and hungry like the rest of the people.”

France is convening a virtual fundraising conference Thursday seeking emergency aid, after Aoun visited Paris last month pleading for assistance.