A European alliance consisting of Great Britain, Prussia, Russia and Austria backed the Ottomans, and through the British consul in Beirut, Richard Wood, sought to persuade Bashir to defect from Muhammad Ali in August 1840. This was after Wood, who had been accorded responsibility over settling Mount Lebanon's affairs by the Ottomans, had won over Patriarch Hubaysh with guarantees that the Ottomans would respect the privileges of the Maronite Church in Mount Lebanon. Bashir had previously been informed by the French consul that French expeditionary troops were set to land in Beirut to back Ibrahim Pasha, who by then maintained a force of 33,000 troops across Mount Lebanon under the command of Sulayman Pasha. Bashir maintained his loyalty to Muhammad Ali and rejected a total of three offers by Wood to defect to the Ottomans, including a warning by British diplomat Lord Ponsonby that Bashir should make haste to return to your [duty] to the Sultan. The third offer by Wood came with a warning that British-Ottoman forces were on the verge of assaulting the Egyptians in Syria.