New Delhi, Jan. 27 -- Gas-rich Qatar on Monday announced investments in Lebanon worth hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the crisis-hit nation's crumbling electricity sector and to continue support for the Lebanese armed forces and the return home of Syrian refugees.

Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, announced the investments by the Qatar Fund For Development after meeting Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun in Beirut.

Lebanon has been improving relations with oil-rich gulf countries following years of tensions over the wide influence that the militant Hezbollah group had in the small nation. Hezbollah was weakened by a 14-month war with Israel, and the Iran-backe...