BEIRUT: Weapons and equipment purchased with the $1 billion Saudi grant to help the Lebanese Army in the battle against terrorism should arrive in Lebanon soon, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday.
Hariri also urged the U.S.-led international coalition to strike hard at ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
The head of the Future Movement spoke to reporters after holding talks with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace in Paris centering on the situation in Lebanon and developments in Syria and the region.
“Of course, France will deliver weapons to Lebanon. I think this will happen and we will see it in the coming days,” Hariri said. “There are no obstacles concerning the $1 billion Saudi grant. It has been finalized and some equipment will arrive in Lebanon as soon as possible.”
Hariri said his talks with Hollande touched on the $1 billion Saudi grant to bolster the capabilities of the Army and security forces following the fierce clashes with ISIS and Nusra Front militants in the Bekaa town of Arsal in August and the previous $3 billion Saudi grant to equip the Army with weapons from France.
Hariri said he discussed with Hollande how Lebanon would use the Saudi grant to bolster the Lebanese Army in its battle against terrorism, a rising concern after militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front briefly seized Arsal in August, taking more than 30 soldiers and policemen captive before withdrawing to the porous border region. The two groups are still holding at least 21 soldiers and policemen hostage after releasing seven and killing three.The $1 billion grant in August came after Saudi Arabia had pledged $3 billion last December to buy weapons from France to help support the Lebanese Army, a deal which has been held up by negotiations between Paris and Riyadh.
Describing the talks with Hollande as “very good,” Hariri said he had discussed with the French leader the presidential vacuum gripping Lebanon after Parliament failed to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year tenure ended on May 25.
“I explained to the French president that the election of a president is a priority for the Future Movement and for the Lebanese,” Hariri said after the 45-minute meeting also attended by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Nader Hariri, chief of the former premier’s office. “We should have a presidential election first, and then come parliamentary elections. Or else [general] elections will be held without the Future Movement.”
Hariri called on the U.S.-led international coalition to launch painful strikes at ISIS in Syria and Iraq, saying strategic strikes were not enough.“They need to do a lot more. I think ISIS is advancing. The Western coalition must be more focused to destroy all ISIS,” he said.
“We don’t need strategic strikes but painful strikes against ISIS … Those terrorists don’t know God and have nothing to do with Islam,” Hariri added.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri Tuesday called on Parliament to meet Thursday to elect a new president amid signs that the session is doomed to fail like its predecessors over a lack of quorum. Thursday’s would be the 13th session to be thwarted by a lack of quorum in the past five months to elect a president.
Asked if there is anything new in the 5-month-old presidential deadlock, Berri was quoted by visitors as saying: “Everyone is calling for holding the presidential election but no one is saying how.”
Asked to comment on Hariri’s statement in which the former premier said that he would not participate in parliamentary elections in the absence of a president, Berri said: “This matter has not been brought up yet for a serious discussion. But my position is clear: I won’t support holding [parliamentary] elections in the absence of a major Lebanese component.”
He stressed the need to elect a president and approve a new electoral law based on large districts and proportional representation.
“The 1960 [electoral] law has brought us to this situation, where there is no agreement among us to confront Daesh [ISIS] as there had been no agreement among us to confront Israel,” Berri was quoted as saying. “Therefore, when a new president is elected and a new electoral law is approved, then even if Parliament’s mandate is extended, Parliament can dissolve itself and we can go to parliamentary elections on the basis of a new law.”
The Cabinet is scheduled to meet Thursday amid signs of a split among ministers over the issue of Syrian refugees.
Two hot issues from outside the agenda will dominate the Cabinet’s discussions: the ordeal of Lebanese soldiers and policemen held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front, and the building of a camp for Syrian refugees outside Arsal, ministerial sources said.
While some ministers support a proposal by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk to relocate the Syrian refugees in Arsal to a camp outside the town, other ministers reject it, arguing that this matter posed a danger to the Lebanese sectarian setup.
Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said during last week’s Cabinet session that the establishment of camps for Syrian refugees inside Lebanese territory “is not going to happen, neither today nor in 100 years.”
