Egypt ready to train Lebanese army

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi expressed Egypt's readiness to train the Lebanese army and gave directives in this respect, said visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad el Hariri.

Lebanon always sends officers for training in Egypt, Hariri said, noting that such training helped his country face terrorism.

Hariri, in a video interview with MENA editor-in-chief Alaa Haider and editor Hassan el Qashawi, lauded Sisi's understanding of the sensitivity of the situation in Lebanon given the almost daily Israeli threats and the presence of more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees on Lebanese lands.

Sisi met on Wednesday with Hariri for talks on expanding bilateral cooperation and the latest regional developments.

Our main goal is to strengthen the Lebanese army and supply it with necessary military might because it is time that Lebanon, alone, determines its own fate. The more trained the Lebanese army is, the more it will be interactive with people because the army in Lebanon groups all denominations, Hariri said.

Talks with Sisi, Hariri said, also took up the Syrian crisis and its impact on regional countries as well as increasing trade exchange between Egypt and Lebanon.

Lebanon needs all its Arab brothers and brotherly Egypt has been always in support of Lebanon. We count a lot on Egypt, he added.

About the coming Arab summit, Hariri said Arab-Arab relations should be promoted more regardless of differences. There are differences among Arab nations but they are much less than what unites them all. So we have to focus on positive sides and put aside any negative ones that will be settled by time.

Asked about his visit to Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar Ahmed el Tayyeb and Pope Tawadros II, he said his presence in Al Azhar and the Church signals an important message is that we have to preserve this coexistence.

The misled group is mainly trying to intimidate Copts and differentiate between Muslims on the basis that they are right and we are wrong. If we get scared by them, they will succeed in their target. So we should mainly fight them by preserving coexistence between Muslims and Copts, Hariri said.

We represent moderation in the Muslim World and I am totally against the belief that all Muslims adopt such extremist doctrine. We have 1.5 billion Muslims across the world while extremists do not surpass 150,000, he said.

About US President Donald Trump and his expected announcement that Muslim Brotherhood and other groups are terrorist groups, Hariri said Trump is an elected president of a country that has interests in the Arab region so we will wait to see what will happen. What makes Trump administration different from the previous US one is that when he takes a decision, we will all know about it, Hariri added.

Source: MENA