Objects Paris 3, places Hezbollah network as part of defense strategy
Telecommunications Minister Gebran Bassil objected to the Paris 3 Agreement during the eighth meeting of the committee in charge of drafting the ministerial statement on Friday evening……
Bassil also presented a proposal that would put “security in parallel to economy.”
Bassil noted that the March 8 alliance’s approval of Paris 3 was linked to their March 14 counterpart’s support of the proposal on the Resistance’s weapons in the ministerial statement.
Bassil said that if the pro-government alliance had any objection to the clause on the Resistance’s weapons, his alliance would also object to Paris 3.
“These objections were similar to the Free Patriotic Movement’s criticism of all the economic policies of the former cabinet,” he noted.
“I did not mind the communication sector privatization, nor even the privatization of other sectors, as long as the circumstances were adequate, but many people would question the timing and mechanism because this sector has a large cash flow,” he said.
On Saturday, Bassil told the Al-Balad newspaper that “being Telecommunications Minister has proved to me that Hezbollah has no relation to the communication network in Lebanon.”
He added that Hezbollah’s network should be part of the Resistance and the national defense strategy.
Bassil affirmed that discussions on the ministerial statement should fall in accordance with the Doha Agreement after the conflicts in Lebanon.
He also urged all political parties to clearly announce their positions, so that talks could be transparent and reduce tension in Lebanon.