The Lebanese army wants to prove itself between the sword of Israel and the wall of Hezbollah. international

An old television sits in the corner of the room, where a group of retired military personnel meet in Akkar al-Atika to discuss aid being distributed to people displaced by the war in Lebanon since the intensification of Israeli bombing in September. How to organize. The town of 17,000 inhabitants is located in the north of the country, a remote location from Beirut. Not because of the distance – barely 135 kilometers – but because of the dilapidated asphalt with garbage strewn across it, which speaks of a state of ruin. However, the forgotten area of ​​Akkar is the nursery of the only popularly considered institution of that absentee administration: the armed forces and its approximately 80,000 soldiers. “50% of them come from this area,” says Petty Officer Haitham Khalil, 55.

“Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty.” This is the motto of an army that helps impotently in the war, faces the military power of the Israeli Goliath and turns its hands to Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that is also the dominant political party in Lebanon and which has its own arsenal. Bound to submit to authority. More than the armed forces. Relegated to the role of guest of honor in the conflict, the country’s government now intends to turn its fragile military into a guarantor of the ceasefire proposal that Israel has already rejected.

The country’s acting Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, said this Monday at the summit of Arab countries in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) that the international community should press for an immediate end to hostilities. He then noted his government’s commitment “to UN Resolution 1701” – which includes the withdrawal of militias from Lebanon’s southern border – as well as “reinforcing the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south”. blue helmet the United Nations, UNIFIL, and “the extension of the authority of the State to all its internationally recognized frontiers.”

Mikati announced on November 6 that 1,500 troops would be sent to the country’s southern border, adding “5,000 additional troops to join the 4,500 troops already deployed” if the ceasefire is signed. That would require unprecedented approval of Hezbollah’s prior agreement. , without which any agreement will remain a dead letter. UN Resolution 1701, which ended the last war with Israel in 2006, requires both the Israeli army and militia to withdraw troops and weapons from the area south of the Litani River. The document provides that blue helmet And the Lebanese army guarantees this withdrawal and is the only army deployed on the border between the two countries, but this offer is not enough for Israel. According to American media, they hope that their troops and their warplanes have full capacity to enter Lebanese territory. Axios,

In the 18 years since the adoption of Resolution 1701, “Israel has violated Lebanese air and naval space 36,000 times,” while Hezbollah has “consolidated its positions, built tunnels and missile ramps” along the country’s southern border. Retired General Khalil says hello. Since October 2023, when the party-militia resumed firing rockets against Israel in solidarity with Gaza, 3,243 deaths and more than 14,100 injuries have been recorded in Lebanon. At least 37 towns and 40,000 homes have been destroyed in Israeli strikes, following a ground offensive that began on 1 October.

So far, the only ones to withdraw from the southern border are the 4,500 Lebanese troops that Prime Minister Mikati mentioned this Monday. Four Lebanese soldiers have been killed in the battle and only once has the Lebanese Army defended itself. It was October 3, when Israeli forces opened fire after they killed one of their own in southern Bint Jebel.

The Lebanese Armed Forces so far lack a “government mandate to defend the country,” says Sergeant Medyen Mohammed al-Assad at the Akkar al-Atika retired military movement headquarters. “If they had asked us to wear uniforms and fight, we would have left right now,” he insists, while his comrades nod. And they’ll do it “even with bare hands.”

no weapons

That’s hardly a metaphor. Lebanon’s military expenditure in 2023 was approximately 226 million euros; The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimates Israel’s wealth to reach approximately 26 billion euros. The Lebanese Armed Forces lack anti-aircraft defense and fighter aircraft. Their weapons, obsolete, usually come from donations from other countries. Far from being comparable to Israel and its latest generation F-35s, its arsenal cannot even be compared to that of Hezbollah, which is believed to have been destroyed by Israeli bombing before destroying its leadership and perhaps even its weapons. Between 120,000 and 200,000 projectiles were collected.

If Hezbollah refuses to disarm, the Lebanese Army will not be able to force the militia to do so. Not just because of its political power or lack of armed forces, but because a part of the Lebanese population would see it as a betrayal against Israel. Furthermore, because it would undermine its reputation of neutrality between the confessions that co-exist in Lebanon and would lead to the desertion of many Shia soldiers, the community from which the party-militia draws. Such a decision could revive the ghost that haunts the Lebanese people, the civil war that ended in 1990 and resulted in more than 100,000 deaths.

The armed forces cannot fight against Israel at all. In this regard, even without considering the absence of a mandate from the Lebanese state nor Israel’s overwhelming military superiority, that country enjoys the unfailing support of the United States. If the Lebanese armed forces have survived in recent years, it is due to the approximately 2.8 billion euros of military aid given by Washington since 2006.

The weakness of the Lebanese army is no coincidence, says retired general Hisham Jaber in his office in Beirut. In 2008, the US threatened (President Michel) Sleiman to “punish Lebanon” if he “accepted a donation of an antialien defense system and several Russian helicopters.” That threat came from Israel,” says the former military commander in the Lebanese capital.

social work

So far in the war, veterans of Akkar Al Atiqa have worked hard in social work that also underlines the popularity of the army. The trunks of his cars parked in front of his movement’s headquarters are filled with pasta, cookies and blankets for displaced people his people have given shelter to. The absence of the armed forces at the front is as noticeable as their presence on the streets. Analyst Khalil also believes that among the 1.2 million people displaced by the war, there has been “infighting” between Shias, Sunnis and Christians in many of the cities, which could have “degenerated” without the military’s presence. Hello.

Imad Salman, a 62-year-old retired soldier who was displaced with his family from Abbasiyeh in the south, says Akkar al-Atiqa welcomed his family “not as displaced people, but as guests.” The officer, who is living in a house provided by one of his comrades, reiterates: “I am Shia, but, above all, I am Lebanese and a soldier. “The army is the backbone of national unity.”

An Arab Barometer survey in 2019 concluded that 91% of Lebanese consider their military unrelated to the corruption prevalent in the country, despite the fact that their economic situation is “pathetic”, describes Sergeant Al Assad. In 2018, a soldier earned the “equivalent” of approximately 939 euros. In 2019, the Lebanese currency devalued by 90% and wages fell to 32 euros in some cases. The current salary of a private soldier is “about 87 euros”; Al-Assad estimates the number to be around 560, an official estimate. In 2020, the Lebanese government authorized members of its armed forces to work on moonlight nights and many to work as taxi drivers, mechanics or bus drivers in their free time.

“Lebanon has excellent soldiers and officers,” says General Jaber, who estimates that, for the Lebanese army to be able to defend the country, it will need at least 4.6 billion euros worth of weapons. The $200 million (185 million euros) committed at the October 24 conference in Paris to support Lebanon are “nothing.”