Man gets 5 years in attempted Hizbollah arms deal

NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge sentenced a Lebanese-Canadian man to five years in prison on Thursday for attempting to sell night-vision goggles and infrared-aiming devices to Hizbollah, prosecutors said.

Naji Antoine Abi Khalil, who had pleaded guilty last year in the Southern District of New York, will serve his term concurrently with a sentence of 57 months for money laundering resulting from federal charges in Arkansas, the U.S. Attorney said in a statement.

Khalil, who ran an import/export business in Montreal, was arrested after arranging the deal with an unidentified man who was cooperating with the FBI and an undercover agent posing as the supplier of Generation 3 goggles and aiming devices made for M-16 assault rifles, the statement said.

Also arrested was an Israeli, Tomer Grinberg, who was working with Khalil, the statement said. Grinberg pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to export sensitive military equipment without a license and is awaiting sentencing.

The armed group Hizbollah was instrumental in ending Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. The United States lists it as a terrorist organization.