Finnish President, Suleiman Inspect UNIFIL: Army Will Receive All Types of Weapons
President Michel Suleiman stressed on Wednesday that the capabilities of the Lebanese army should be fortified, pointing out that the military can receive any type of weapons it needs.
“There are no banned arms,” Suleiman said after a short visit to the Headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the southern town of Naqoura accompanied by his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto.
Suleiman called for the adoption of a defense strategy that enables the country to benefit from the resistance and neutralize it from all the political rows locally.
Lebanese political leaders were discussing the defense strategy during a national dialogue session ahead of its suspension in September 2012.
President Michel Suleiman revealed in late December that Saudi Arabia has decided to donate $3 billion with the aim of purchasing French weapons for the Lebanese army as soon as possible.
France had reportedly proposed selling Lebanon used equipment despite a pledge by French army chief-of-staff Edouard Guillaud during talks with Army Chief General Jean Qahwaji in Saudi Arabia to provide the army with all its needs.
Italy is set to host in March a conference that aims at fortifying the capabilities of Lebanese Armed Forces and easing the Syrian refugees crisis.
Suleiman also called for enabling the army to fully carry out its responsibilities with the support of the resistance “whenever needed.”
“The political cover for the army is fully granted without any reservations,” Suleiman said.
Concerning the ongoing conflict in the neighboring country Syria, the president pointed out that the war had a tremendous impact on Lebanon, topped by the huge influx of Syrian refugees.
Lebanon, with a population of four million, is hosting around 900,000 registered Syrian refugees, with estimates of more than a million in the country, including those not yet registered with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
On the presidential elections, Suleiman stressed that “it will happen no matter what.”
Suleiman’s tenure ends in May 2014, but the constitutional period to elect a new head of state begins on March 25, two months prior to the expiration of Suleiman’s mandate.
Earlier, media reports said that the Finnish President arrived in Lebanon for talks with senior officials to discuss the bilateral cooperation and regional developments.
Soon after his arrival, Niinisto headed to Tyre to inspect the Finnish contingent operating within the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the state-run National News Agency reported.
The Finnish President arrived at the UNIFIL Headquarters in the southern town of Naqoura accompanied by President Michel Suleiman aboard a helicopter.
Niinisto is expected to tackle the two countries bilateral ties and the situation in the region and in Lebanon amid the huge influx of Syrian refugees.
The Finnish President will also discuss the Syrian conflict and its impact on Lebanon, especially concerning the alarming influx of Syrian refugees into its territories.
10 years
Actually, Finland was not destroyed as you describe. Sure we suffered losses but was the only European country which wasn´t invaded by an outside force in the whole war.
After the war the economy prospered and nowadays we are:
Most educated nation in the world (PISA annual study)
One of the least corrupt countries in the world (Transparency.org)
Most prosperous country in the world 2013 (Legatum institute)
So, Cedre, check your facts before posting.
10 years
How do Finns feel about racist laws, such as the arrangment in Lebanon that gives the Christian minority half the seats in Parliament, leaving the Shiite majority as outlaws in their own country; and how do Finns feel about Israel as a Jewish state that shouts its racism in that title?
10 years
Chris it would be nice for someone who is neither a Lebanese citizen or have anything to do with the country to leave their ridiculous comments to themselves. How is it that you figured out the country's demographics when there hasn't been a census for 80 years. You must be a special kind of genius. You are truly amazing, Chris, I applaud you. Honestly go sort out your own country's laws why don't you and leave your lousy comments to yourself
10 years
*nor has
10 years
@cigar
Not sure I quite understand the process of being suspended on Naharnet. Why and how are the above named involved in his suspension? I thought this is an open forum of discussion available to all to precisely for each to communicate his/her opinion/point of view on some topics.....
Suspending someone for his/her point of view makes this site totally irrelevant
10 years
cigar, they're suspended coz Naharnet is managed by saudis, chechens and qataris. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...
btw u forgot me in ur list.
10 years
yeah u were LOL
10 years
@cigar
Thank you for your reply. I am indeed saddened to see that censorship is applied here. I guess we are losing our country and losing our freedom of expression is integral Alas. I do recall Flamethrower. Admittedly I did not share his views but he did make sense sometimes. Nevertheless he certainly has the right to express himself freely here regardless what I or any one else agrees with him or not.
10 years
prove I'm a nusra boy or shut up...
10 years
Give us evidence, links, quote,etc...
I can also say that u sound zionist to me, that doesn't make a zionist, does it ?
10 years
if you support and defend nusra, and speak like them, it might not make you one of them, but certainly one of their supporters at least.
cigar didnt say you were a nusra member, he said supporter, and i think he is undoubtedly right.
10 years
cedre, your persistent insistence on bashing any side against nusra et. al and the delusional conspiracies you put forth in trying to down-play or subvert their monstrocities is enough reasonable evidence for anyone with half a brain to rightly infer you are a supporter of theirs.
10 years
yeah right assad is winning, in fact he will soon liberate the Golan as well and bring democracy to syria...now back to almanar/al alam habibi...
10 years
'is enough reasonable evidence for anyone with half a brain to rightly infer you are a supporter of theirs.'
anybody with half a brain maybe, a normal person with full brain no.
Did Yalta make Churchill communist haboub ? Did Ribbentrop Molotov Agreement make Stalin a nazi chateer?
Get urself a full brain mate...
10 years
how can you even drawn parallels between those things? they did it out of necessity to preserve their countries. they didn't even support the other side nor covered up or justified on their behalf. You on the other hand morally support atrocities committed by literal terrorists by making up far-fetched conspiracies about nusra being an apparatchik of assad or that isf and army soldiers are fighting on behalf of HA or that the innocent citizens had their death coming to them and so on and so on. ridiculous. do you even read what you write? then how can you not see yourself as lending moral support to terrorists? you can be against one side without supporting the other you know, just see the examples you've posted about as proof! damn.
10 years
anonyme you think you have a brain but in fact it's a mish mash of misconceptions and confused partial knowledge. i feel sorry for you.
10 years
Thank you cigar
let's see how long you and I will last here before possibly gwtting suspended...lol
10 years
cityboy, why should iceman and popeye be suspended. I have never seen them use bad or foul language. It seems you want anyone who opposes HA to be suspended. If someone is smarter than you, it is not nice to use cheap methods to get to them.
10 years
funny how their hatred for iceman and popeye drives them crazy. I agree eagledawn, it stems from their own inadequacies. I watched on 2 occasions when popeye got into a debate with their ring leader mowaten, and he schooled him all the way back to kindergarten. The people complaining are fakes with multiple accounts and limitless egos who sit behind a keyboard just pressing the report button. As to FT, he is the most inadequate and socially inept person I have ever seen (online).
10 years
*getting sorry
10 years
“There are no banned arms” >> we'll see once the weapons are delivered, if there are surface to air missiles that can protect us against israeli war planes.
10 years
.mowaten. I hope you don't even dignify the above two posters' far fetched and borderline delusional accusations by replying. Exacerbating their senselessness by reponding is the exact opposite of how the situation can be resolved.
10 years
okay infinity, i was tempted to answer, but your advice seems sound, i'll take it
10 years
lol you call that logic? rofl, you're insulting yourself
10 years
keep it up cigar, dont listen to the nusra barkers.
10 years
LAF don't need HA support.
One must be lebanese to believe that a resistance made only of pro-khamenei shias is a resistance for lebanon.
What part of it dont u understand ?
HizbIran is a resistance to the project called LEBANON.
HizbIran= NO LEBANON.
Rwanda had a tutsi militia, israeli has a jewish one, HA a khomeynist one, etc.. u know what i mean ?
A lebanese militia will defend lebanese interests, values and society.
A khomeynist militia will ONLY defend interests of Khamenei and Bashar...
10 years
what do u mean by integration ?
breaking the confessional ratio in LAF ?
U want Qahwaji, others officers that went through Saint-Cyr and other academies sit at the same table with pasdarans & hizbothugs ?
Do u think by integrating they'll stop their allegiance to Khamenei and his taklifs shar3i ?
texas do u just understand how HA works ?
what next ? Integrating alqaeda in the army ?
10 years
tex again with pointless platitudes and a profound lack of cause-effect reasoning lol.
10 years
(1). Mr. President, with all my respects and affection, this defense strategy is an idea that fewer and fewer people these days are willing to accept. First, we are not at war with Israel, remember, we still have an Armistice. Now let's be perfectly honest, why keep hiding behind our little finger, had it been Israel and us alone, there would be no war, literally none. But you see, you know Sir as we all know, that we Lebanese are always divided, between those who truly want peace and build a strong and vibrant nation of laws and strong constitutional institutions and most unfortunately those who are always running after one Pan-Arab ideology or the other, or Pan-Iran and God knows what more. Decades ago, we signed the Cairo Treaty, that allowed our ungrateful guests to stage their war on Israel from our country.
10 years
(2). Sir who was it that signed that loatheful treaty, not us all, Christians and Muslims? Henceforth, didn't we go from one conflict after the other, all because of the PLO, the Syrians who backed them, and God knows what other Arab and East-Bloc countries who had a proxy war against the West hence and so forth? Didn't they all want to keep that dirty war on Lebanese soil? Then in 1982, wasn't the PLO and all the terrorist gangs booted out of Lebanon? Who replaced them Sir, isn't it that same militia (calling itself Resistance) that today is trying every single attempt to derail your noble efforts? With the PLO it was a straightforward business, go out or else. But with our so-called resistance Hezbollah, it's a lot more dangerous to say the least.
10 years
it's as if anonymetexasusa has never read a single comment of bani's. damn, how can one be so one-sided?
10 years
(3). Mr. President, I am one who doesn't believe in that equation called whatever state/resistance, we don't need that resistance, we all believed it was a real one, but where has it gone to today but Syria and every country where it shouldn't be? We have a good army, a great one, an army that is noble, well trained and has great dignity, but this army cannot and will not operate so long as everyone wants to tell it how to operate and where and where not it can operate. You Sir have done a great job at keep the army intact, this despite all the stratagems every Tom, Dick and Harry has tried. Now diplomacy has an end road, our repeated attempts to accommodate the Resistance have now reached a dead end.
10 years
(4). Sir, you remember just how many years we tried to find a compromise with Hezbollah, how many formulas we tried, didn't we all know that we were wasting our time? Sir, added to our Armistice with Israel, we also have now a UN sponsored ceasefire, so why continue this equation? The only way forward for Lebanon is pretty simple, let Hezbollah sit with us in one table, let us discuss with it the period in which it will gradually surrender its weapons to the state and integrate its men in the LAF, then henceforth continue purely as a political party and nothing else. I will call this as the noble and logical exit strategy for Hezbollah and us all. Look at Spain's ETA, and Ireland's IRA, it took years, but it also took determined governments to bring them to reason.
10 years
(5). Why can't we do the same, all the time remaining firm? Most Lebanese mean or wish NO harm to Hezbollah, despite all their sabotage of the nation, most Lebanese will forgive them, provided they come to reason and accept that they cannot dictate their Lebanese siblings. Lebanon is gradually sinking, sinking into a sea of mud, the more we keep wiggling like this, the more we sink. Hezbollah is causing us all to lose sight of our direction, most of us want peace, prosperity, to live and work in this beautiful country of ours, we are fed up with going to the Diaspora, all we want is to live here, side by side, respecting, supporting and trusting each other, all sects, all parties, but also as equals under the same and one law.
10 years
(6). Israel is not attacking us, except when we provoke it, so why the resistance anyways, now it belongs to Syria, then God knows what whom else? Resistance and state cannot and do not live together, that stage is now well past us, all we want is the state, the state and the state, pure and simple. We want to live in a state where the state's will is NOT challenged by anyone, we want a state where our laws are respected and upheld, where there's no corruption, where the honest is not seen as gullible, and where crooks have only one address to go, jail. Sir, you have most of the people behind you, don't compromise anymore. No more equation, just the state Sir, nothing else.
10 years
texas speaking about finland and resistance, have u ever heard about Winter War and Continuation War ? Small Finland resisted and caused big casualties to the Soviet giant. We could build a very strong defensive army based on scandinavian or swiss militia.
But to be strong and cohesive, it needs to be multiconfessinal.
Palestinians must be disarmed, given more rights and their weapon stored in arsenals, in case of invasion then they should be armed.
Same with hizbos and any others militias.
10 years
well said.
10 years
the fact that HA is a deterrent against israeli incursions as seen in jordan (they now reject jordanian custodianship of jerusalem and the jordanian valley) and egypt (prevent egypt from entering their OWN area without their consent) and so on should also be noted for a complete and whole post. israel knows HA doesn't negotiate with israel and is uncontrollable enough to launch tens of thousands of rockets aimed right at haifa/tel-aviv etc. that they don't mess with it. if they do, really...all out devistation in the middle east and specially israel. they'd rather keep to themselves rather than try to annex lebanese land like they practically have in jordan and egypt. you know all about greater israel.
10 years
anonymetexasusa, is that really you, it's very rare that I can agree with your posts, but this time, thumbs up from me. And phoenix, I wish for the utopia you speak of as much as you or the next Lebanese does. Will that utopia be achieved simply by HA handing over their weapons, I wish it were that easy. You have a whole region in the south that is fearful of Israel and now fearful of what the Saudis and Qataris unleashed on Syria, until that day comes when the army can truly defend the nation then HA will be seen as a necessity rather than a burden by at least half the population.
10 years
Racism does not work. It is antithetical to the whole idea of law. So are you ready to let "one person, one vote" come to be the law in Lebanon and consign to the dustbin of history the giving of half of Parliament to the Christian minority? Would you be willing as a first step to hold a census to see how many Lebanese are Christian, how many are Sunni Muslim, and how many are Shia Muslim? You may be comfortable with Israel as a neighbor because you think racism is a viable form of government. Is Israel succeeding?
10 years
Funny to read comments about Finland. Yes, my homecountry stayed independent after WWrs and still going strong. One of wealthiest in EU.
10 years
full disclosure- HA can't possibly hand in their weapons for their own safety. now that they are implicated in bombings and murders, how can they possibly protect themselves without their weapons?
10 years
anonymetexasusa
Your scare tactics, assuming Israel will do this & that will not & does not work. No very convincing at all. Don't you agree?
Again has Israel attacked Egypt or Jordan. Their peace treaties were a success.
Did not Israel hand back sinnai to Egypt?
The reason why Israel is holding onto strategic lands is for defensive purposes, once it knows that the neighbour will not show any aggression it will sign a peace treaty.
10 years
Sticking by the President undivided is the only solution.
When did Lebanon ever be a positive spotlight? Other than division & warfare.
This is a great opportunity for Lebanon to aim for peace.
Now stick by your leader.... I MEAN THE PRESIDENT no one else.
10 years
Army will receive all types of weapons 3al wa3d ya kammoun! We're talking about video games here.
almost 10 years
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching for grow taller
If I was the president, I wouldn't be able to meet this Niinisto.
Finland was totally destroyed during WW2, had to pay reparations to Moscow. Now look at their country and economy...