France, partners seek urgent aid to help Lebanese Army, says French official
After failed attempts to gather Lebanon’s warring parties to agree on a new government and initiate reforms to unlock foreign cash, Paris has sought to increase pressure on the country’s warring parties. A currency crisis has wiped off the majority of the value of Lebanon’s security forces’ paychecks, causing discontent within the country’s security forces. To address this, France will convene a virtual summit on Thursday with partners from the US, Russia, China, European nations, and the Gulf Arab region. Since late 2019, Lebanon’s pound has lost 90 percent of its value versus the dollar, posing the worst danger to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. Army chief Joseph Aoun was in France in May to warn of an increasingly untenable situation with…
