Lebanese president to press Obama on US military aid

Dec 15, 2009, 12:06 GMT

Beirut - Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman will meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday where he is expected to urge speeding up of arms delivery for Lebanon, local radio reported.

Suleiman, who arrived in Washington on Saturday, will also emphasize on the Palestinians right-of-return from refugee camps in Lebanon and elsewhere, State Minister Adnan Sayyed Hussein, who is accompanying the president on his visit, was quoted as saying.

There are some 367,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 camps across lebanon amid miserable conditions.

The US has long provided military assistance to Lebanon, including 410 million dollars to the military and the police. But Washington has not handed over any sophisticated arms for fear they could end up in Hezbollah hands.

The military assistance over the past years included aircraft, tanks, artillery, small boats, infantry weapons, ammunition, Humvees and cargo trucks, according to the US Embassy in Beirut.

The embassy says the US will provide the Lebanese army with 12 Raven unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft in the coming months. Militant activities by Hezbollah, whose arsenal is allegedly supplied by Iran, has drawn increasing concern from within Lebanon and in Israel.

Despite the fact that UN resolution 1701, which ended the 33-day Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006, calls for disarming the Lebanese Shiite movement, the group has insisted on maintaining their arms to fight off any future Israeli attack on the country.