BEIRUT: Spain’s top diplomat announced Wednesday a €10 million aid package for Lebanon’s army, in a boost for the armed forces who have a crucial role in implementing a fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
“This announcement of 10 million euros for the United Nations Development Programme” will contribute to “supplement the salaries of the Lebanese Armed Forces” as well as finance “solar panels and logistical aspects” of the army, Jose Manuel Albares said during a visit to Beirut.
Lebanon has struggled for years to finance its public institutions including the army following a 2019 economic crisis.
It now also faces the challenge of rebuilding the country after more than two months of war between Hezbollah and Israel that the group had initiated over the Gaza conflict and ended in November.
“Aid for... the reconstruction especially of south of Lebanon, will be necessary to stabilize the country,” Albares told reporters after meeting Lebanon’s new president, former army chief Joseph Aoun.
Spain has contributed more than 650 personnel to the UN peacekeeping force in the country’s south (UNIFIL) with force chief Aroldo Lazaro hailing from Spain.
A committee composed of Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates, alongside a representative from UNIFIL, has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire deal.
On Wednesday, the US army official on the committee said the Israeli army was on a “very positive path” to withdraw from Lebanon’s south ahead of the deadline for implementing the truce later this month.
Lebanese army “checkpoints and patrols operate effectively throughout south-west Lebanon, and the soldiers are dedicated to their mission as Lebanon’s sole security guarantors,” said Major General Jasper Jeffers during a visit to the checkpoints.
“We are on a very positive path to continue the withdrawal of the IDF as planned, and the LAF is providing for the security and stability of Lebanon,” he added.
Under the November 27 ceasefire accord, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws.
At the same time, Hezbollah is required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in the country’s south.
Spain pledges 10 million euros for Lebanon army
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Spain pledges 10 million euros for Lebanon army
- Jose Manuel Albares: The 10 million euros will contribute to ‘supplement the salaries of the Lebanese Armed Forces’ as well as finance ‘solar panels and logistical aspects’ of the army
- Under the Nov. 27 ceasefire accord, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws
Western Libya forces kill notorious migrant smuggler, security agency says
- The Security Threats Combating Agency raided the group’s hideout in response to the attack and killed its leader, Ahmed Al-Dabbashi
- Dabbashi had been under US sanctions since 2018
BENGHAZI: Western Libyan security forces said on Friday they had killed a notorious migrant smuggler in the coastal city of Sabratha after “criminal gangs” affiliated with him attacked one of their checkpoints overnight.
The Security Threats Combating Agency, a security agency under western Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, said they raided the group’s hideout in response to the attack and killed its leader, Ahmed Al-Dabbashi, also known as “Al-Amu.”
Dabbashi’s brother was arrested and six members of the force were wounded in the fighting, the agency said in the statement on its Facebook page.
Dabbashi had been under US sanctions since 2018. Washington described him as the “leader of one of two powerful migrant smuggling organizations” based in Sabratha and said he had “used his organization to rob and enslave migrants before allowing them to leave for Italy.”
Human trafficking is rife in Libya, which has been divided between rival armed factions since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The proliferation of smuggling gangs and the absence of a strong central authority have made the country one of the main staging points for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
Dbeibah was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021, but significant parts of western Libya remain outside his control. Dbeibah’s Government of National Unity, or GNU, is not recognized by rival authorities in the east.
An armed alliance affiliated with an earlier UN-backed government in Tripoli – the Government of National Accord – had taken on Dabbashi’s forces in a three-week battle in 2017 that killed and wounded dozens and damaged residential areas and Sabratha’s Roman ruins.
