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MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA, France

Date Posted: 22-Feb-2016

Jane's Defence Weekly

Saudi Arabia cancels military aid promised to

Lebanon
Nicholas
Beirut

Blanford

Saudi Arabia has suspended military aid packages worth more than USD3 billion to the Lebanese
Armed Forces (LAF) in an apparent protest against the powerful, Iran-backed Hizbullah
organisation.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) announced on 19 February that Riyadh has stopped the
USD3 billion in French defence equipment it pledged to provide to the LAF, as well as a second
USD1 billion package for Lebanon's security forces.
The SPA cited an unidentified official source as saying the decision was taken because Lebanon's
Hizbullah-dominated government failed to condemn the 2 January attack on the Saudi embassy in
Tehran. The embassy was attacked by people protesting the execution of the Shia cleric Sheikh
Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil subsequently declined to endorse declarations,
accusing Iran of supporting terrorism at two meetings in Cairo and Jiddah organised by the Arab
League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, respectively. Bassil is a member of a
Lebanese political coalition that includes Hizbullah.
In a 16 February speech, Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah attacked Saudi Arabia and
other Gulf states for abandoning the Palestinian cause and implying they were co-operating with
Israel.
The Saudi decision to stop the aid packages provoked a political storm in Lebanon, which is
already bitterly divided between pro- and anti-Saudi camps.
Ashraf Rifi, Lebanon's justice minister and a Sunni supporter of Saudi Arabia, announced his
resignation the following day, saying he was no longer able to work in a government dominated by
Hizbullah.
Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, a senior Hizbullah official, accused Saudi Arabia of preferring to arm Sunni
Islamist militants in Syria rather than the LAF. "Had the Lebanese army bowed to Saudi Arabia's
will on fighting the Resistance [Hizbullah], it would have received the Saudi weapons very quickly,"
he said.

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ANALYSIS
There were already doubts about Saudi Arabia's commitment to the Lebanese donations, which
were made before the death of King Abdullah in January 2015.
The first pledge was announced in December 2013 and covered the purchase of USD3 billion in
weapons and equipment from France for the LAF. The first and only batch of weaponry was
delivered in April 2015 in the form of 48 MILAN anti-tank guided missiles.
A deal was signed on 2 February for the delivery of 100 VAB Mk3 and 100 Sherpa armoured
vehicles to the LAF, although a delivery date has not yet been announced.
Other systems that were due to be purchased included 24 CAESAR self-propelled howitzers,
seven Airbus H215M (Eurocopter AS352) Cougar helicopters, three Combattante FS 56 fast
attack craft, and six VBL light armoured vehicles fitted with Mistral short-range surface-to-air
missiles. Presumably, none of this equipment will now be delivered.
Saudi Arabia made a second pledge in August 2014 to provide USD1 billion in aid, of which the
LAF was to receive about half, with the rest split between the Internal Security Forces (a
paramilitary police force) and the General Security department.
Much of the LAF's share was reported to have been earmarked for the acquisition, which is being
carried out under the US Foreign Military Sales system, of six Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano
light attack aircraft. The US Department of Defense announced in October 2015 that it had
awarded the Sierra Nevada Corporation a USD172.5 million contract to deliver the aircraft, as well
as related equipment and services, to the LAF.

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