Bassil: "Engagement” Between FPM And Hizbullah is Not Eternal
Telecommunications Minister Jibran Bassil said the "engagement" between the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Hizbullah is "not absolute and not eternal".
He denied that the events of May 7, 2008 has pushed the FPM to review its alliance with Hizbullah, "because revising a stance is the concern of the mistaken."
Bassil previously told reporters while he accompanied President Michel Suleiman to the United Arab Emirates said: "our alliance with Hizbullah does not mean we cannot form an alliance with some other Lebanese parties in the future."
He pointed that the issue of Colonel Daniel Faris, who was accused by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat of involvement in the phone wiretapping issue, Bassil said: "this officer receives his order from the military institution and not from the ministry of Telecommunications."
He added that Faris was handpicked for his current duty due to his good merit in extending the authority of the law. "Antoine Qahwaji is the officer legally authorized by the ministry of defense to work with the wiretapping team at the ministry of telecommunications," Bassil said.
The minister said since working with Faris he has succeeded in terminating 300 illegal phone lines including some at the southern suburbs of Beirut. Adding that phone-scanning machines were also confiscated from the same area.
Bassil said that Hizbullah is not above the law saying: "any international phone call made outside the scope of the ministry”s legal network is deemed illegal. There is no need to play around the law."
He rejected the idea that a sweeping election victory by Hizbullah on June 7 would change cause an imbalance in the Lebanese political makeup, saying the success of Hizbullah would not breach constitutional limits.
Bassil said that March 14 Forces continue to barge the work of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) that is looking into the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafik Hariri into the wiretapping issue for electoral reasons only.
He rejected claims that he is not cooperating with UNIIIC saying: "if cooperation means that I have to accept dictates by March 14 Forces then I am not cooperating."
Bassil explained that UNIIIC has not complained of that he is not cooperating.
Regarding the issue of Turkish mediation between Syria and Israel, Bassil said: "If negotiation with Israel would settle the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon then why not?"