About twenty countries, including the United States, the Gulf countries and several European countries, will virtually attend this international meeting to gather emergency aid for the Lebanese army, as well as representatives of the United Nations. and the European Union, we told the office of the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, on Wednesday. “For several months, the Lebanese army has had difficulty meeting its basic needs,” food, health and for the maintenance of equipment, say those around him.
“It is all the more problematic as the Lebanese armed forces, today, it is the pillar institution which makes it possible to prevent that the security situation in the country does not deteriorate strongly, does not degenerate”. The Lebanese army has formulated “very specific needs”, food (milk, flour ..), drugs, spare parts for the maintenance of equipment, which amount to “a few tens of millions of euros”, he said. -we specified from the same source. The assembled aid must be mobilized “as soon as possible”, one adds in Paris, pointing out “the gravity and the urgency of the situation”.
Its format – transfer of money or goods, food stamps or the like – will be discussed on Thursday. The conference will be opened by Florence Parly and her Italian counterparts Lorenzo Guerini – Rome is also very involved in this subject – and Lebanese Zeina Akar. The United States pledged a contribution during a meeting Tuesday in Brussels between Ms. Parly and her American counterpart Lloyd Austin.
Sending material
France, which provided survival rations for more than one million euros at the start of the year, is expected to announce the dispatch of anti-Covid medical equipment and spare parts for front armored vehicles and helicopters. The needs identified also relate to “fuel, lubricants, tires, batteries”, which clearly shows “the critical nature of the situation”, we added to the ministry. Aid will not, however, relate to the acquisition of equipment or the payment of balances, the international community subordinating any economic or financial support to Lebanon to structural reforms which are slow to materialize, due to a lack of government.
French President Emmanuel Macron has put strong pressure in this direction since last summer on Lebanese leaders, so far to no avail. The country has still been without a government for ten months, for lack of agreement between the parties in power, accused by the streets of letting the country flow. Besides the monetary collapse and shortages, Lebanon is experiencing an explosion in unemployment and large-scale impoverishment, with a 90% drop in real wages.
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