France is to host an international fundraising conference on March 5 in support of the Lebanese army, which is currently carrying out the sensitive task of disarming Hezbollah.
The date was announced as President Joseph Aoun hosted a group of envoys including Saudi, US, French, Qatari and Egypt officials.
Among the visiting officials were Saudi Arabia's envoy Prince Yazid bin Farhan and French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, who met with Lebanese leaders at the Presidential Palace in Baabda.
The conference − which had been long talked of without a date being formally announced − will be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. It will be the first major fundraising effort for the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces since 2024.
Salaries in the Lebanese military have plummeted since the country's 2019 economic crash and the armed forces are reliant on foreign aid.
Overstretched and underfunded, the military recently announced it had completed the first phase of its disarmament plan in the South Litani region near the Israeli border.
Some 10,000 troops have been deployed to southern Lebanon to take over positions vacated by Hezbollah and Israel.
However, Israeli forces continue to occupy five points of Lebanese territory, in violation of the November 2024 ceasefire deal.
Lebanon's government is under intense pressure from the US and Israel to disarm Hezbollah quickly, while international donors have made major aid to the cash-strapped country conditional on reforms and progress.
While Hezbollah accepted the disarmament plan for south of the Litani River, it is strongly resistant to doing so elsewhere. The Lebanese army is due to set out phase two of the plan for the areas south of the Awali River − which flows into the Mediterranean north of Sidon − next month.
