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London backs Lebanon against IS threat: envoy

Xinhua, February 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher said on Monday that his country has been helping the Lebanese army fend off the threat of Islamic State (IS) militants deployed in the border region with Syria.

According to the National News Agency (NNA), Fletcher said after talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam "we have a substantive package of support to the land border regiments, training and equipping them to keep Daesh (IS) on the other side of the border."

"Daesh" is an Arabic acronym for the IS group.

Members of the IS group and the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front are entrenched on the outskirts of the Syrian-Lebanese border.

They invaded the border town of Arsal in August 2014 and engaged in deadly battles with the Lebanese army before they returned to Syria after taking at least 35 soldiers and policemen as hostages.

Over the nation's presidential crisis, the ambassador said it is not in the interests of the Lebanese people, adding that "there is no magical international fix" to the presidential deadlock.

"We could not have spoken louder about the danger of this irresponsible failure of duty," the envoy said.

Lebanon has failed more than a dozen times to elect a president due to political disputes and electoral rivalry after former President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure ended in May last year. Endit