Some 16 months after the December 2013 announcement of the Saudi donation to buy French weapons for the Lebanese military, the first shipment finally came on April 20. However, it seemed awfully modest compared to what had been promised. More importantly, it was much less than what the Lebanese military urgently needs.
It all started during a news conference by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Dec. 29, 2013, when he announced that Riyadh had decided to offer the Lebanese military $3 billion, to be allocated for the purchase of weapons and ammunition from Paris exclusively.