BEIRUT: The Lebanese military is ready for any attacks by Islamist militants when the snow melts in spring, Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi said Friday, vowing to forge ahead in the battle against Syria-based jihadis threatening to destabilize Lebanon.
Kahwagi stressed that the Army has been standing fast and united since it fought fierce battles with ISIS and Nusra Front militants when they briefly overran the northeastern town of Arsal last August in the most serious spillover of the Syrian war into Lebanese territory.
Speaking during a meeting with a delegation from the Press Federation headed by chief Aouni Kaaki at his office in Yarze, Kahwagi also dismissed reports of defections within military ranks.
Asked whether he expects a major battle to erupt on the outskirts of Arsal once the snow melts next month, Kahwagi said: “We take all eventualities into consideration. We anticipate everything and we are taking all precautions. Having stood fast for four years for now, we have learned a lesson from this test.”
“Therefore, we are ready for anything, operations and attacks. But I will not disclose any matter because this is part of the secrecy [to ensure] the success of the military operations,” he said. “We must not let our enemy or the gunmen [ISIS and Nusra Front] with whom we are in a war and confrontation know our plans and thinking.”
Kahwagi’s remarks come amid growing fears that ISIS and Nusra Front militants, holed up in rugged mountainous caves on the outskirts of Arsal, are gearing up for a major offensive deep into Lebanese territory along the eastern border with Syria when the snow melts.
The Army, which has carried out pre-emptive strikes against terror cells and thwarted several suicide bomb attacks in the past few months, has frequently clashed with ISIS and Nusra Front militants in areas near the border with Syria. The two groups are still holding hostage 25 soldiers and policemen captured during the Arsal fighting.
Asked what was the impact of the 4-year-old war in Syria on the situation in Lebanon, Kahwagi said: “We are doing our job. If we stay united, we have nothing to fear. What matters is to stay united.”
Kahwagi said the Army, which used to number 58,000 soldiers, is now a 70,000-strong force, deployed in all areas in Lebanon, including the border with Israel, where it coordinates with the U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, to maintain security in the region.
“In addition to fighting terrorism, the Army has a security role inside the country and has made big successes in various fields,” he said. “We have stayed put for four years and our role is to prevent strife.”
Asked whether the Army is capable of fighting terrorists and facing the Israeli enemy together, Kahwagi said: “The Army is standing fast and has succeeded in [its job]. We have stayed put in an area where temperature reached 17 degrees below zero and still the Army stood fast and will continue to do so.”
He scoffed at reports of defections. “The Army is united. There are no defections at all,” he said, adding that only three soldiers, whom the Army had sacked, defected.
Kahwagi said the $3 billion Saudi grant to purchase French weapons to bolster the Lebanese Army’s capabilities in the battle against terrorism has kicked off. “The delay [in the arms delivery] is due to the manufacturing process because the weapons agreed upon were not produced in advance,” he said.
The French Defense Ministry said last month that it would begin shipping $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese Army in April. Under the deal first announced in 2013, France would supply French armored vehicles, warships, attack helicopters, munitions and communications gear to the Lebanese military.
Kahwagi said that the $3 billion Saudi grant and $500 million of the other $1 billion Saudi grant to the Army and security forces were on the “right track.”
He added that 90 percent of the Army’s needs came from the United States. “The Americans are providing us with very modern arms,” he said.
The Army chief dismissed ISIS as “a bunch of liars and thieves who just care for money, theft, women and have nothing to do with religion.”“They are a group of killers and outlaws who steal, loot and kill in the name of religion,” he said.
Meanwhile, a French military delegation was due in Beirut to conduct a final needs-assessment report before French officers begin training Lebanese troops to use new weapons funded by the Saudi grant. A military source told The Daily Star a delegation from the French Foreign Legion would explore the military’s needs, particularly in its battle against terrorism.
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