Washington is moving to bolster Lebanon’s armed forces as the country faces economic collapse and an increasingly intractable political crisis.
The US on Friday announced an additional $15 million in aid to Lebanon’s military for 2021 following a first-of-its-kind conference between senior State Department and Defense Department officials and the commander of Lebanon's armed forces, Gen. Joseph Aoun.
The conference was headed by the State Department’s top official for arms control and international security, Eliot Kang, and attended by the State Department’s acting head of Levant policy, Aimee Cutrona, US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea and US defense officials.
The two sides agreed to increase US defense cooperation with Lebanon's armed forces and to “develop a five-year plan to develop the army's capabilities,” the Lebanese armed forces said in a statement.
