The Lebanese Army Commander, General Rodolphe Haykal, met several military and international leaders at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain. The discussions focused on cooperation and support for the institution. No new aid or delivery schedule was announced in the balance sheet made public on 3 November.
The trip took place from 30 October to 1 November 2026. Invited by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Haykal participated in the twenty-second edition of this forum on regional security. He attended the opening in the presence of Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman ben Hamad Al Khalifa.
The visit enabled the army commander to bring together European, American and United Nations interlocutors in the same framework. Bilateral discussions concerned the situation in Lebanon and the region, as well as ways to strengthen cooperation with the military institution.
Interviews with several partners
Haykal met with the Dutch Chief of Defence Staff, General Onno Eichelsheim. He also met with the German Parliamentary Secretary of State for Defence, Nils Schmid, and Tasos Tzionis, National Security Adviser and Director of Intelligence of the Republic of Cyprus.
On the American side, he spoke with Michael P. DiMino IV, head of the Middle East Department of Defense. Other interlocutors included Vaidotas Urbelis, Director of Defence Policy at the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence, and Rear Admiral Yannick Bossu, Representative of the Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces.
The Commander also met with Abdallah Al Dardari, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. The presence of this interlocutor places the consultations in a wider circle than the only relations between staffs.
Support for the Lebanese Armed Forces: commitments still to be specified
During these meetings, officials stressed the importance of the army’s efforts to preserve Lebanon’s security and stability in the face of current challenges. However, the report of the visit remains general on the practical follow-up to the exchanges.
It does not detail any new financial envelope, equipment delivery, training agreement or implementation schedule. Therefore, Manama’s interviews cannot be described as a donor conference that has established a costed programme.
The distinction does not remove their scope from contacts. A bilateral meeting will examine cooperation and maintain relations with a partner. However, a specific commitment requires other elements: a decision, identified means, beneficiaries and dates. These exhibits were not made public in the travel report.
A regional forum, several separate files
The Manama Dialogue brings together officials on Middle East security issues. Lebanese participation is part of these exchanges, but each meeting retains its object and its interlocutors. The support given to the army cannot be equated with a global agreement on the other issues discussed during the forum.
A distinction must therefore be made between consultations with the army commander, regional diplomatic discussions and possible announcements by each State. The holding of interviews in one place does not demonstrate a common position on all issues or a collective funding mechanism.
The follow-up will be measured by the concrete decisions that the partners will make public. For the time being, the established result of the displacement is this series of consultations on cooperation and support for the Lebanese army, without any further quantified promise.
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