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Beirut (AFP) July 26, 2010 US Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Affairs Alexander Vershbow on Monday met Lebanese officials and UN commanders in the south of the country, the presidency said. Vershbow, a main adviser to Defence Secretary Robert Gates on US security and defence policies in the Middle East, discussed US military aid to Lebanon which in recent years totalled more than 500 million dollars, a statement said. The aid comprised aircraft, tanks, light arms and training. A US embassy statement in Arabic reported by the national news agency quoted Vershbow as saying that Congress has approved 100 million dollars in aid to the Lebanese military for 2010. "This financing will help the Lebanese army to continue its programme of equipment and training over several years and allow it to preserve security and combat cross-border smuggling," the US statement said. It added that the aid would allow the army to "prevent militias and other non-government organisations from resorting to violence to undermine the authority of the Lebanese government." The statement did not name any groups, but Washington considers the Shiite Hezbollah movement to be a militia and a "terrorist organisation." Vershbow met President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the capital and also visited senior commanders of the UN peacekeeping force deployed in the south. His trip comes amid mounting fears of conflict in Lebanon after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last week that he knew the UN tribunal probing the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri was set to indict Hezbollah members. The south was also tense earlier this month after a string of protests against a maximum deployment exercise by the UN force there. UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, has some 13,000 troops stationed in the south. Created in 1978 to monitor the border between Israel and southern Lebanon, UNIFIL was considerably boosted after the devastating 2006 summer war between Hezbollah and Israel.
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