France Won’t Send Weapons To Lebanese Army Because Lebanese Government Is “Confused”

Most headlines focused on the comments of US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee who asked France not to sell 100 anti-tank missiles to the Lebanese Army:

“France should do the responsible thing and cancel this sale unless and until the Lebanese government takes the steps necessary to root out extremists from its own ranks and disarm Hezbollah,”

But that shouldn’t be the takeaway from that story. We should focused instead on why France didn’t end up sending the missiles it promised:

[A French official] “categorically denied” that Paris had “given in to pressure” and that this was why the sale had not been completed. [He] instead said “confusion” within the Lebanese government was responsible for the deal’s delay or failure.

I wonder which particular confusion he was referring to.