Lebanon received increased military support from the international community Thursday (March 15th) with France opening a 400 million euro ($492 million) line of credit to the country's army, AFP reported.
Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri thanked Paris at an international conference held in Rome to drum up money to bolster the armed forces of the country.
"This conference is important because we in Lebanon were the first to oust the 'Islamic State of Iraq and Syria' (ISIS) out of our soil -- we were able to do it with very little capabilities," al-Hariri said.
He said further discussion would be had to clarify the amounts pledged by each of the 40 countries at the Rome II Conference, which will be followed by two further meetings in Paris and Brussels.
France announced earlier in the month it would provide 14 million euros ($17.2 million) to Lebanon's army, mostly in the form of anti-tank equipment.
