Lebanese government was mulling over severing private Hezbollah phone network connections that started in southern Lebanon and ended up in Beirut and its suburbs, local Naharnet news website reported on Tuesday."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," Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi was quoted as saying.
Aridi said after a lengthy cabinet session on Monday that the government has formed a committee to draft a report on recent information that Hezbollah had installed its own communication infrastructure in southern Lebanon.He said initial reports have shown that the Hezbollah communication 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 (Hezbollah)."
Aridi said the government was "determined to protect the resistance and the symbols of the resistance from the Israeli enemy but the information that we gathered do not follow this logic." But he did not give further details.
Meanwhile, the daily An Nahar, citing cabinet sources, said Tuesday that the cabinet had instructed Lebanese security forces to perform a "specific task" under which "appropriate measures" would be taken to deal with Hezbollah’s move.
The cabinet was considering authorizing a "security and technical team" to sever the phone network connections, according to the report.