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How France and Saudi Arabia are arming Lebanon

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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud (R) walks alongside French President Francois Hollande (L) following a meeting with Saudi businessmen in Riyadh on Dec. 30, 2013. (AFP)

Staff Writer, Al Arabiya News
Monday, 30 December 2013

French President Francois Hollande met Saudi Crown Prince, deputy Premier and Defense Minister Salman bin Abdulaziz at the end of his visit to Riyadh on Monday.

The two leaders discussed regional and international issues of common concern and ways of bolstering bilateral ties, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Earlier on Sunday Hollande held talks with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz on ways to boost commercial ties and address escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The monarch highlighted a “convergence” of positions between the two countries on several issues, a member of Hollande’s entourage said.

Saudi state news agency SPA said the two leaders discussed mutual cooperation and “regional and international developments.”

Saudi journalist and political commentator Salman al-Dousary told Al Arabiya Net that the three main issues discussed during Holland’s visit were Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

The French president was due to meet Lebanon’s former premier Saad Hariri and Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba in the kingdom, an entourage member said.

Hollande was met on arrival in Riyadh by Crown Prince Salman, before taking a helicopter to the king’s Rawdat Khurayim farm, 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of the capital.

Four ministers and 30 top French business figures are also on the visit.

Paris and Riyadh share a “will to work for peace, security and stability in the Middle East”, Hollande said in an interview published in Sunday’s Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat.

His meeting with Hariri, a staunch critic of the Syrian regime, comes after the killing in Lebanon of his close aide, ex-minister Mohammad Chatah, in a Beirut car bombing on Friday.

Hariri, the son of former premier Rafiq who was also assassinated in a massive car bomb in February 2005, lives outside Lebanon because of security concerns.

The Sunni Muslim leader is also a strong critic of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement, which is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria’s civil war.

Speaking to reporters in Riyadh, Hollande pledged to “meet” any requests by the Lebanese government to arm the army.

His comments came as Lebanon’s President Michel Sleiman announced from Beirut that Saudi Arabia had pledged $3 billion for the Lebanese army to buy French equipment.

In his al-Hayat interview, Hollande urged respect for “constitutional deadlines” in Lebanon, starting with “holding presidential elections in May 2014.”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Hollande would deliver a “special message” to Hariri reiterating Paris’s friendship and “calls for the integrity and independence” of Lebanon.

France “rejects the contagion that some want to impose between the conflict in Syria and Lebanon,” he said on board the presidential plane.

On Syria, Fabius said Hollande would tell Jarba that the opposition taking part in the proposed peace conference in Switzerland on January 22 was “desirable.”

The U.S.-Russian backed talks dubbed Geneva 2 are aimed at reaching an agreement on a transition to end the war which has claimed an estimated 126,000 lives since March 2011 and displaced millions of people.

Syria’s increasingly fractured opposition has said Assad must step down as part of any deal, which Damascus rejects.

France intends to support the “moderate opposition and in no way the terrorist movements that paradoxically serve the interests” of Assad, Fabius said.

Hollande reiterated to Al-Hayat that there cannot be a “political solution with Bashar al-Assad staying” in power.

He accused Assad of using the threat of fundamentalist fighters “to put pressure on the moderate opposition”.

Assad said this week that Syria was being confronted by a major offensive by Islamist extremists.

Radical Islamist groups have taken on an increasingly prominent role in the Syrian conflict.

Hollande also noted in the interview that Saudi Arabia has become France’s “top client in the Middle East” with trade exceeding eight billion euros ($11 billion) in 2013, including French exports worth three billion euros.

The balance of trade remains in Riyadh’s favor on the back of its oil exports to France.

Hollande also highlighted contracts won by French companies in the oil-rich kingdom, including Alstom’s Riyadh metro deal.

Last Update: Monday, 30 December 2013 KSA 18:04 - GMT 15:04

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...rown-Prince-Salman-at-end-of-Saudi-visit.html
 
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Instead of how , we should ask ourselves why and why now?
The answer may be in the following article...

Why the Lebanese Authorities had let The Saudi terrorist Majed El- Majed die?




al-Majed received his instructions directly to the head of Saudi intelligence Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and recently he was responsible for transferring the battle of Iraq and Syria to Lebanon.


majed.png



Officially, the Emir of "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" linked to al-Qaeda Islamist group that claimed responsibility for the twin bombings against the Iranian embassy in Beirut occurred on November 19, died suites of his injuries, reports the National News Agency (NNA, official). He was wanted by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, the United States and Iraq. According to AFP, citing a "judicial source" the suspect reportedly died of kidney failure.

The question arises: why services renseigment the Lebanese army, which had captured, had they not taken the precautions to heal and ask to collect the maximum information about this Wahhabi jihadist nebula that is destabilizing the whole region of the Middle East and sow death and tereur?

Shortly before the announcement of his death, al-Amin ibrahi, the editor of the daily Al-Akhbar, close to Hezbollah, warned the Lebanese government against the dangers there has to liquidate this person or leave dying from the disease.

Letting it die, Lebanon he obey Saudi pressure? Offering three billion dollars the Wahhabi kingdom promised to the Lebanese army was she sounding counterpart and stumbling to liquidate the terrorist bulky claimed, among other things, Iran and could be disturbing revelations all countries involved in supporting the Syrian rebellion?

Entered Lebanon on a false passport, the "emir" Abdullah Azzam Brigades was arrested after being admitted to the hospital al-Makassed for injuries sustained during the fighting against the Syrian army in the region of al- Qalamoun.Entered Lebanon under an assumed name, he was intercepted by the intelligence services of the army, who spun since his release from the hospital, near the roundabout of the Ministry of Defence, while went in the Bekaa.



Friday was a medical source told AFP that the health of Saudi was "serious".This source, which would follow the patient closely before his arrest, said he was suffering from "kidney failure, imposing regular dialysis." Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif, announced in an interview with UPI that Iran is preparing to send "a team to help in the investigation of the double attack against the Iranian embassy Beirut ". According to UPI, the team should also participate in the interrogation of al-Majed Majed. Mr. Zarif had also transmitted during a call to his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour, thanks Iranian President Hassan Rohani to the Lebanese authorities for their efforts and the arrest of the main suspect in the attack against the Embassy of Iran, according to Iranian agency IRNA.



Majed al-Majed was part of the list of 80 most dangerous people wanted by theSaudi Arabia . The Saudi daily al-Watan had reported "new information on a planned attack that Majed al-Majed against the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Assiri in person." According to the daily, the terrorist "attacked the Kingdom of Saudi before targeting the Iranian embassy in Beirut." The same goes daily to finally say that the Emir Abdullah Azzam Brigades "followed intensive training in Pakistan, and later Iran, which had also hosted heads of Al-Qaeda fleeing Afghanistan after U.S. intervention. "



In 2009, the Lebanese judiciary had sentenced in absentia Majed al-Majed, a Saudi born in 1973 to life in prison for belonging to Fatah al-Islam.


The Army Command - Directorate of Orientation, pointing out - in a statement that the detainee Majed Al-Majed, leader of the terrorist Al-Abdullah Azzam Brigade, was declared dead after the deterioration of his condition health, Central Military Hospital, has he tried getting rid of the prisoner who knows too much and protect Saudi intelligence that manipulated?

Denying the allegations of the Saudi daily Al-Watan daily as-Safir, citing sources close to the investigation, said for his part that Majed al-Majed received his instructions directly from the head of Saudi intelligence Prince Bandar bin Sultan and recently he was responsible for transferring the battle of Iraq and Syria to Lebanon to change the balance of forces, which currently leans in favor of anti-Saudi camp in favor of the anti-Syrian coalition and pro-saoduienne 14 Mars, led by Saad Hariri.




Caption: Saudi Majed al-Majed was arrested on Dec. 26 by the intelligence services of the Lebanese army.
 
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@Ceylal

Al-Majid had a serve kidney failure years ago. He was the pivot and the prize to the Authorities, ranked as the top 8 most wanted of Al-Qaida leaders.
 
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@Ceylal

Al-Majid had a serve kidney failure years ago. He was the pivot and the prize to the Authorities, ranked as the top 8 most wanted of Al-Qaida leaders.
But there are news circulating that beside El Madid, Bandar's son is the among the arrested and both the Lebanese and KSA are trying to kill the story. That where the $3 billions aid came to place...
 
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Their total number is 60.000-70.000 missiles, many of them being able to reach all of Israel, I believe. And they have much more accuracy now, so they can hit sensitive Israeli infrastructure.
If Israel decides to go to war against Hezbollah again, Hezbollah can cripple Israel and raze it to the ground. It depends on how much Israel wants to escalate any potential future conflict.

What does Saudi Arabia got to do with it?
 
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But there are news circulating that beside El Madid, Bandar's son is the among the arrested and both the Lebanese and KSA are trying to kill the story. That where the $3 billions aid came to place...

Sometimes you are very funny @Ceylal

Stop the daydreaming for once. One of his sons? Are you serious?

This is one of Bandar's sons, Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al-Saud.



In March 2011, Khalid married Lucy Cuthbert, the niece of Duke of Northumberland at a ceremony attended by a handful of guests.[4][5]

Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stop reading propaganda for once.
 
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Sometimes you are very funny @Ceylal

I just share the news with the forum participants. I don't make them up like do, or use wiki as my source.. And yes I have a sense of humor...But in this case it a "grave precedent" dixit the french. Not only Bandar was suspected of financing terrorism while he was Ambassador in the US thru his wife, but his son was among caught with El Madid.

Stop the daydreaming for once. One of his sons? Are you serious?
I leave that to you and tour fellow arabs, you hold the candle in that field.
 
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@Ceylal

:lol:

So the photo is lying?

I am surprised that you did not mention your favorite Child-Murderer (Al-Asshead) while you were at it.

Besides I do not know what "news" you are reading but you better find something better or just stick to reporting about Western Sahara.

:lol:
 
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But there are news circulating that beside El Madid, Bandar's son is the among the arrested and both the Lebanese and KSA are trying to kill the story. That where the $3 billions aid came to place...

El-Madid and its likes are so damn funny :lol:

What son are we taking about here? Both of Fahad, Faisal are politicians, in no way related to intelligence work. Khalid happens to be a businessman, AbdulAziz is still young to carry such " operation "

P.S. The announcement of the given package came two days prior to the arrest of Al-Majid in the north of Lebanon.
 
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@Ceylal

:lol:

So the photo is lying?

Its just a picture...Taken a while back, what make you think that is the only son he has...

I am surprised that you did not mention your favorite Child-Murderer (Al-Asshead) while you were at it.
For a futur chemist, you sure need to pay attention when you read something... I dare you to show one post of mine where I favored your nemesis.

Besides I do not know what "news" you are reading but you better find something better
That applies more to you than to me , since I am fluent and practice in several languages notwithstanding dialects, I think my plethora of sources is away better than yours.

or just stick to reporting about Western Sahara
Good to know that you come and see the site. You need to visit more often ...It will give you a certain edge on your wahabi pals , in a near future...I posted 4 videos, and a list of Moroccan losses during their war with the Sahrawi...You should view them.

:lol:
 
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@Ceylal

:lol:

You are slow as a turtle.

The evidence is on you. The absurd claim came from your mouth. You need to back it up. You can't which means you failed. Like many times before.

Your stupidity just increases when you desperately try to portray a nonsense "story" after it was clearly dismissed.

It surely seems so. One just need to visit the Syrian "civil war" thread.

You picked the wrong guy. I am fluent in several languages too. But you don't strike me as a person that is fluent in Arabic. As a Berber are you then even able to write in Berber? I highly doubt it. Like most of you who are unable to do so.

Why should I care? Give me just one reason.
Besides the only Moroccan here does not take you seriously like many other users. You can try again but I fear that you will fail.

@FARSOLDIER
 
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El-Madid and its likes are so damn funny :lol:

What son are we taking about here? Both of Fahad, Faisal are politicians, in no way related to intelligence work. Khalid happens to be a businessman, AbdulAziz is still young to carry such " operation "

P.S. The announcement of the given package came two days prior to the arrest of Al-Majid in the north of Lebanon.
Yzd, before you throw me under the bus...wait until the dust settles...:butcher:...You have no idea what Bandar did to us...just as recent as 6 mos ago. That's arab politics..They spend more screwing each other than they spend getting close.
 
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Yzd, before you throw me under the bus...wait until the dust settles...:butcher:...You have no idea what Bandar did to us...just as recent as 6 mos ago. That's arab politics..They spend more screwing each other than they spend getting close.

This Bandar surely pisses off people with no influence. I am afraid that all they can do is crying.

Bandar is here to stay.

 
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