Lebanon president says will ask Saudi Arabia to resume $3-billion grant to army

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun will ask Saudi Arabia to reactivate a $3-billion aid package to the Lebanese army in his visit to the kingdom next week, Aoun says in an interview with Asharq television.

Aoun, who was serving as commander of Lebanon’s army before he was elected president on January 9, is set to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday in his first trip abroad.

He tells Asharq he will ask Riyadh “if it is possible to reactivate the grant” halted in 2016, after Lebanon failed to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Saudi Arabia once spent billions in Lebanon, depositing funds in the central bank, helping to rebuild the south after the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, and supporting a number of Lebanese politicians, only to see Hezbollah grow more powerful with Iran’s support and its influence spread across the Middle East.

But recent months have seen seismic political shifts in the region, with Israel pummeling Iran-backed Hezbollah last year after over a year of attacks by the terror group, and Hezbollah’s Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad toppled in December.

“I hope and I await from Saudi Arabia – and especially the Crown Prince – to correct the relationship in the interests of both countries,” Aoun says, saying he hoped for strengthened economic and political ties.

Lebanon faces a huge reconstruction bill following a year of Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah, but Lebanese officials and diplomats say foreign support – including from the Gulf – is contingent on Beirut enacting long-awaited financial reforms.

Aoun says Lebanon is committed to those reforms but hopes that the reconstruction aid, in turn, will come “step by step” to allow for rebuilding so that Lebanese displaced from destroyed villages in the south can return home.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.