Iran offers to arm Lebanon if US pulls weapons aid

BEIRUT // If Lebanon requests help in modernising its poorly armed military, Iran is willing to help supply weapons and training, according to a top Iranian defence official quoted by a state-run news service. The defence minister Gen Ahmad Vahidi told the official Irna news service that Iran was ready to respond to any request for help from Lebanon after the Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah proposed the idea in a speech to the Lebanese people on Tuesday night.

"Lebanon is our friend," Gen Vahidi was quoted as saying. "If there is a demand in this respect, we are ready to help that country and conduct weapons transactions with it." Mr Nasrallah had been responding to threats by American lawmakers to end a small but important programme to help modernise the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) after US-supplied equipment was suspected by Israel of being used in a bloody firefight along the two enemies' shared border this month.

"The Americans expect that the weapons granted to the army are not granted for the sake of fighting Israel, but rather for domestic reasons they describe as counterterrorism. This was exposed after the Aadaysieh incident as the debate started," Mr Nasrallah said regarding US intentions in helping arm the LAF. Since the Syrian military withdrawal from Lebanon in early 2005, the US government has promised at least US$700 million (Dh2.57 billion)in direct and indirect aid to the LAF, according to the US Embassy in Beirut. This included emergency shipments of ammunition and other supplies during a three-month siege of the Nahr al Bared Refugee camp in northern Lebanon in the summer of 2007.

During that battle, in which al Qa'eda-inspired militants withstood months of artillery bombardments, the LAF was forced to use aerial bombing techniques that included pushing unguided bombs off transport helicopters. Lebanese troops normally deploy around the country with a mixture of 1960s-era weaponry and uniforms. In ensuing years, the US military has supplied the LAF with light weaponry and vehicles intended for counter-terrorism and domestic security operations as well as training for elite Lebanese units. But the exact amount of promised aid actually delivered remains disputed.

After the border clash with Israel, several US legislators criticised the aid as having led to the death of an Israeli officer during the fighting and some have threatened to withhold further assistance until convinced that the weapons will not be deployed against Israel, with which Lebanon technically remains in a state of war. Iran has successfully helped build Hizbollah into the most powerful non-state military organisation in the world with money, weaponry and training, and the group holds a far stronger offensive capability than the LAF through its modern rocket and missile programme.

Although the Lebanese government has not criticised its American patrons, the threat of a weapons ban led the defence ministry to open a bank account for international donations to buy Lebanon more modern weaponary. Calls to the ministry to determine how much money the effort has raised thus far went unreturned yesterday. @Email:mprothero@thenational.ae