EU Boosts Lebanese Forces, Ignores Its Own Arms Flowing to Region
The EU, we're told, is weighing ways to strengthen Lebanon's Internal Security Forces to allow the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to focus on 'disarming Hezbollah'—a proxy by many accounts, not a separate invading army—and 'securing borders.' This comes after the EU approved massive arms sales to Middle Eastern countries which often find their way into conflicts, fueling instability. For example, EU
member states approved over €50 billion in arms exports to Saudi Arabia from 2015-2019, arms directly implicated in the war in Yemen. One might wonder if the EU's sudden concern for Lebanese stability extends to examining where its own weapons end up. Or if 'disarming Hezbollah' is just code for paving the way for larger regional maneuvers that often destabilize Lebanon, rather than truly
empowering its sovereignty. It's a classic case of 'let's fix the symptoms we helped create' but bill it as benevolence.