Qatar to support Lebanese soldiers’ salaries with $60 million pledge
By Andrew Mills and Maya Gebeily
DOHA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Qatar has pledged $60 million to the Lebanese military, state information company QNA mentioned on Thursday, funding that’s earmarked to assist the salaries of Lebanese troopers, two sources briefed on the deal informed Reuters.
The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) mentioned the bundle was supposed “to assist members of the military” however didn’t particularly point out salaries. The Qatari authorities didn’t have any rapid remark.
Discontent has been brewing within the safety forces as Lebanon’s foreign money has misplaced greater than 90% of its worth towards the greenback, driving down most troopers’ wages to lower than $100 monthly.
“The funding is particularly earmarked to assist troopers salaries. It is going to present assist for a time period with the aim of stabilizing the scenario,” one of many sources mentioned.
Aram Nerguizian, a senior army adviser on the Carnegie Center East Middle, mentioned “it’s the intention of the LAF to deploy the complete quantity of the Qatari grant to allow a $100 cost-of-living adjustment per LAF family over the subsequent six-to-seven months.”
The hope is that the Qatari grant would open the door for no less than $50 million in U.S. funding in addition to different sources of assist to bolster the military to the top of the 12 months, Nerguizian mentioned.
Lebanon’s monetary disaster has gutted public sector salaries and the quantity paid to troopers is barely sufficient to afford a primary subscription to a generator service that might offset the 22-hour cuts within the state electrical energy grid.
The military’s canteen stopped providing meat to troops in 2020 to economize. The next 12 months, it started providing sightseeing excursions in its helicopters to lift funds.
To complement their low salaries, many troops have taken further jobs and a few have give up, elevating issues that the establishment – considered one of few in Lebanon that may rally nationwide satisfaction and create unity throughout its fractured sectarian communities – may very well be fraying.
Firstly of Lebanon’s civil battle within the Seventies, fissures alongside sectarian strains within the military helped gasoline a descent into militia rule.
Qatar’s international minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met with Lebanese president Michel Aoun on Thursday, the ministry mentioned in a press release.
He additionally met with LAF commander Basic Joseph Aoun.
Qatar has supplied the Lebanese army with 70 tons of meals every month since final summer time, however Thursday’s announcement is the primary time it has pledged money funding within the present disaster.
(Reporting by Andrew Mills, Maya Gebeily and Lina Najem; Modifying by Toby Chopra and Grant McCool)
