WikiLeaks: Geagea Said Lebanese Army in Need of Hundreds of MiGs
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has told a U.S. official that Lebanon was in need of hundreds of MiG-29 Russian fighter jets to “threaten Israel.”
In a WikiLeaks cable dated December 19, 2008, Geagea told U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Hale that Lebanese army pilots need a 10-year experience on the jets to confront Israel.
The cable was published by al-Akhbar newspaper on Friday.
It said that Geagea warned during the meeting that MiG jets would “most probably complicate U.S. efforts aimed at building support for the army inside Congress and with Israelis.”
But al-Akhbar said that Druze leader Walid Jumblat had bluntly told Hale in another meeting that Lebanon did not need MiG jets.
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