Beirut preps for national security debate

BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 3 (UPI) -- Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said a national dialogue session, set to kick off next week, should focus on natural security issues in his country.

Lawmakers in Beirut begin a series of talks Tuesday at the presidential palace. Suleiman called on Defense Minister Elias Murr to attend the sessions "given that he has to have a say in the design of a national-defense strategy," Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper reports Wednesday.

Lebanon is monitoring its southern border following a series of exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli leaders. Hezbollah and Israel fought a bruising 34-day war in 2006 and both sides blame the other for lingering tensions.

Hezbollah, now a part of the Lebanese government, in 2009 secured the right to maintain an armed resistance to Israel.

The debate comes as U.S. military leaders arrived Wednesday in Beirut.

Murr said following his trip to the United States in February that Washington agreed to provide $267 million in military aid to Lebanon.

Moscow, meanwhile, said it would offer 10 Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships free of charge to the Lebanese military, instead of the supersonic MiG-29 interceptors that Moscow had planned

Washington fears any advanced military equipment may wind up in the hands of Hezbollah fighters.

Washington, however, supplied the Lebanese military with combat air-support aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles to support border-protection efforts in 2009.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/03/03/Beirut-preps-for-national-security-debate/UPI-75881267642470/.