Former Lebanese President: Saudi will resume $3bn military grant

Former Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said that Saudi Arabia will resume the $3 billion grant it pledged to rearm the Lebanese army with French weapons.

Suleiman announced the news in a post to his official Twitter account.

In February, Saudi Arabia announced that it would scrap the grant to arm the Lebanese Army and suspend $1 billion in aid for Lebanon’s internal security service.

An official source at the time said the decision comes as a result of the “hostile Lebanese positions resulting from the stranglehold of Hezbollah on the state”.

The Saudi-funded Donas military aid programme announced in December 2013 was three times the size of the annual Lebanese defence budget of $1.2 billion. The programme includes the shipment of vehicles, helicopters, drones, cannons and other equipment.