President Michel Aoun meets with Qatar’s foreign minister, who visited Beirut this week with a primary aim of helping facilitate government formation in Lebanon. (Credit: Dalati & Nohra)
DUBAI — Qatar will provide the Lebanese Armed Forces with 70 tons of food a month, the Qatari state news agency, QNA, reported, as Lebanon seeks assistance amid its worst economic and political crisis since the 1975–90 Civil War.
Joseph Aoun, the head of the Lebanese Army, had appealed to world powers at a meeting in France last month for assistance for soldiers, whose wages have plunged in value as the lira has crashed and inflation has soared.
Qatar’s donation was announced on Tuesday during a visit to Beirut by Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. QNA did not give details about the food aid offered.
Sheikh Mohammed urged Lebanese parties to form a new government “to achieve stability,” QNA said. Lebanese politicians have spent months wrangling without agreeing on a new government that is needed to unlock international aid.
Lebanon’s cabinet resigned after a massive blast at the Beirut port in August of last year and has been acting in a caretaker capacity since then, while the economic crisis in the heavily indebted Arab country has deepened. The lira has lost more than 90 percent of its value against the US dollar since the crisis erupted in 2019.
Lebanon has long looked to the Gulf for financial aid in the past, but Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia have become increasingly reluctant to help because of the rising influence of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite group back by Iran.
Western and other international donors have demanded a new government and major reforms before providing assistance.
news agency, QNA, reported, as Lebanon seeks assistance amid its
worst economic and political crisis since the 1975–90 Civil War.
Joseph Aoun, the head of the Lebanese Army, had appealed to world
powers at a meeting in France last month for assistance...