Lebanese PM urges international help to bolster military, recruit 8,000 new soldiers

International support will be needed to shore up and expand Lebanon’s army and rebuild the country’s destroyed infrastructure, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati tells a Paris conference convened amid Israel’s offensive on Hezbollah.

Mikati said the Lebanese government had decided to recruit more troops and could deploy 8,000 soldiers as part of a plan to implement a ceasefire and a 2006 UN Security Council resolution, which calls for the army to be deployed in southern Lebanon.

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