Lebanon will ask Saudi Arabia to resume $3bn grant to army, president says

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun will ask Saudi Arabia to reactivate a $3bn aid package to the Lebanese army in his visit to the kingdom next week, Aoun said in an interview with Asharq television broadcast on Friday.

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

He told Asharq he would 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.

Reported by Reuters