Lebanese minister slams Hezbollah telephone network

Aug 29, 2007, 13:35 GMT

Beirut - Lebanon's Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh on Wednesday slammed the Shiite Islamic movement Hezbollah for installing a private phone network, branding the move a 'state violation.'

Hamadeh said the Hezbollah network, which started out in south Lebanon and ended up in Beirut and its suburbs, 'went beyond logic.'

He criticized Hezbollah's move as a 'commercial, security and military project' related to the group's 'state within the state.'

Hamadeh claimed that Hezbollah's 'independent network' was an indication that the group intended to cover between two thirds and three quarters of Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the government of Prime Minister Fouad Seniora was considering severing private Hezbollah phone network connections.

'We agreed to draw a plan of action for a peaceful resolution of this issue, but we are serious about resolving it because it is a dangerous matter,' Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters after a lengthy cabinet session on Monday.

Aridi said the government formed a committee to draft a report on recent information that Hezbollah had installed its own communication infrastructure in south Lebanon.

He said initial reports have shown that the Hezbollah networks 'went beyond (the southern village of) Zawtar Sharqiyeh to reach Beirut and the suburbs of Beirut which are outside the security areas of the leadership of the resistance.'

According to government sources, the report which was prepared by a ministerial committee confirmed that Hezbollah had privately installed phone networks that have reached Dahiyeh, or Beirut's southern suburbs, as well as areas inside the capital's downtown.

The sources said the cabinet instructed Lebanese security forces to perform a 'specific task' under which 'appropriate measures' would be taken to deal with Hezbollah's move.

They said the cabinet was considering authorizing a 'security and technical team' to sever the phone network connections.

Seniora was quoted by a source as responding to Hezbollah's act, which was considered a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, by sarcastically saying: 'All we need is (Hezbollah) to ask a musician to compose a new national anthem.'

Some sources close to Hezbollah said the phone network was set in the south to protect its members from Israeli attacks and assassinations.

But Aridi said the government was 'determined to protect the resistance (Hezbollah) and the symbols of the resistance from the Israeli enemy but the information that we gathered about the network does not follow this logic.' He did not give further details.