The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon has announced that President Donald Trump’s administration has delivered military equipment to the Hezbollah-linked Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), namely Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
“It will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with new capabilities to protect Lebanon, to protect its borders, and to fight terrorists,” declared Elizabeth Richard, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, referring to the U.S.-supplied military vehicles. “Over the next several months, the Army will undergo intensive training on how to operate and maintain this new, very sophisticated combat system.”
“I am pleased to once again demonstrate our long-term commitment to Lebanon, and our support long term to the Army — and only the army— as it fights terrorism and defends the borders of this country,” added the chief at the American embassy, a component of the U.S. State Department.
Her comments came Monday at the Port of Beirut, where the U.S. delivered the Bradley Fighting Vehicles and armored field artillery ammunition supply vehicles to the armed forces of Lebanon.
This week alone, the U.S. provided eight M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, the first of a total shipment of 32 expected to reach the Lebanese military in the coming months.
Amb. Richard revealed that the United States had supplied various defense articles to the Lebanese military during the last year, including howitzers, grenade launchers, machine guns, mortars, hellfire missiles, night vision devices, and thermal sights technology, at an “investment” of $100 million in American taxpayer funds.
“America’s support for Lebanon is based on the shared interests of the American people and the Lebanese people,” said Amb. Richard. “Our support is based on the principle that we share the same goals for stability and security in this country, and we share the view that the Lebanese Armed Forces need to maintain their rightful place as the sole provider of security and stability to the Lebanese people.”
Although analysts have linked the Lebanese military to Hezbollah, some Christians have credited Lebanon’s army with protecting their large community from other jihadists.
Iranian narco-terrorist proxy Hezbollah, a Shiite militia fighting on behalf of the Russian-backed dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria, is believed to control Lebanon.
As Conservative Review (CR) noted, Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies proclaimed, “Hezbollah, of course, controls the Lebanese government and dictates the operations of its armed forces.”
“The Lebanese army is a subsidiary unit of Hezbollah” and Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, “is another [Sayyed Hassan] Nasrallah operative,” warned Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, referring to the leader of Iran’s puppet terror organization, Hezbollah.
Last year, an anonymous senior Israeli military official noted that Hezbollah is using weapons in Syria that were supplied to Lebanon by the United States, an allegation that former President Barack Obama’s administration denied.
CR reports:
Everyone knows that the Lebanese government is completely at the mercy of Hezbollah and Iran. Given that Hezbollah is much stronger than the LAF, is comprised of many Shiites, and is subject to the direction and veto power of its Iranian masters, it defies logic to think that they could possibly maintain control over U.S. aid without Hezbollah confiscating it.
The United States provides Lebanon with military equipment on the condition that they are for official use.
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