Tarshish mayor Gabi Samaan rejected the statement of the ministry of communications in which the minister denied that Hezbollah is installing its own network using the infrastructure of the state network .
Samaan confirmed that Hezbollah network was installed on top of the state network.
The Ministry of Telecommunications issued a statement on Tuesday denying that Hezbollah is attempting to install a telecommunications network in Tarshish ( or Tarchich)
“A technical staff was assigned to supervise the works of the fiber optic networks project, carried out by a private company working for the Telecom Ministry, and we found out that there are no non-state installations in the telephone passages that belong to the ministry in Tarshish,” the statement said.
The ministry also reassured the residents of Tarshish that “no non-state networks will be installed in their town.”
The Ministry of Telecommunications is headed by Nicolas Sehnaoui who is a member of Free Patriotic movement (FPM) which is headed by MP Michel Aoun, a close ally of Hezbollah
During a call to LBC’s Naharkum Saeed ( Have a nice day) program Samaan said the residents of Tarshish tried to prevent Hezbollah members from installing their network in the town , but one of the Hezbollah men Hassan Janbieh threatened them with another May 7, 2008 event if Hezbollah is not allowed to install its network.
In May 2008, Hezbollah occupied the western part of Beirut and tried to occupy Mt Lebanon when the cabinet of former PM Fouad Siniora decided to remove the party’s telecommunications network .
Samaan added: The minister of communications is living in a different world ….let him come and visit Tarshish and we will show him the Hezbollah installation and the conduits used for their network. He accusede some ministers and parliament members of blindly defending what Hezbollah is doing.
According to observers, since Aoun is a key ally of Hezbollah , there is serious concern in Lebanon that he is trying to cover up Hezbollah’s attempt to use the state’s telcom network infrastructure to install its own. Aoun, like Hezbollah threatened on Tuesday that the fuss over the Tarshish incident could lead to a repetition of May 7, 2008 event.
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