The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) will start a large-scale joint military exercise with the British military from Tuesday this week. Active participation and observation from several allied countries will also be involved in the training which will last for 3 weeks and is titled “Pegasus Cedar 2026”.
British troops, who are still residing on the island, will be transferred to Lebanon’s Air Assault Regiment, official sources say. The main goal is to strengthen operational preparedness and capacities of military forces, and improve interoperability among the partners.
UK MoD has traditionally been a key backer of the cash-depleted Lebanese military. To secure the land borders of Lebanon, in the past, the UK gave millions of dollars in financial aid and a lot of training in a joint exercise in September 2023.
Specialized combat scenarios such as reconnaissance missions, tactical raids, and combat in built-up urban areas will be a major emphasis of the upcoming drills. The exercises will be carried out with the participation of personnel from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defence of Italy along with the British and Lebanese troops. As official observers, military staff from France, Cyprus, Qatar, and Jordan will be on hand.
It is a milestone military exercise, given the critical moment in the lives of Lebanon’s under-equipped armed forces. The force, comprising about 80,000 troops, heavily depends on the foreign aid for its operations.
At present, the Lebanese military is dealing with huge logistical and security hurdles trying to mobilise to southern Lebanon. The deployment is included in a larger June deployment agreement between Israel and Lebanon, which also calls for the disarming of Hezbollah and the phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area.
The situation got more tense in the region in March as Hezbollah’s actions pushed Lebanon into a broader regional conflict. Israel, in turn, bombed and invaded in the sky, and on the ground. The war was preceded by clashes in 2023 that eventually escalated into an all-out war the next year.
While the overall level of violence has subsided since June, Israeli forces are still making targeted demolitions and are still deployed in a 10-km security zone inside the Lebanese border.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun recently visited Paris with a view to attracting international support in these times of crisis. Last month, he met with the President of France Emmanuel Macron and King Abdullah II of Jordan, and held a critical discussion on important international assistance for the Lebanese Forces.
