United States plans to train and equip Lebanon military

August 4, 2006

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have approved a plan to provide training and equipment to the Lebanese military.

The goal would be to allow Lebanon to take control of its own territory once fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had eased.

Rice was quoted as saying, "We need to end the hostilities in a way that points forward a direction for a sustainable peace."

The Hezbollah raid into Israel, which resulted in the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the deaths of seven others and sparked the current conflict, was to ransom the captured for the exchange of Israeli-held Lebanese prisoners.