Lebanon - Hezbollah network

Row over Hezbollah telecoms grid

Qassem says Hezbollah's telecoms network is an extension of the group's capabilities [Al Jazeera]
Lebanon's government is to take legal action against a private communication network established in the country by Hezbollah, the Shia political organisation and armed group.

Ghazi al-Aridi, Lebanon's information minister, said on Tuesday that the cabinet has decided to pursue all those considered to be involved in the communication network.

"Since it is illegal and constitutes a threat to the government's sovereignty and its public properties, we will take legal action and prosecute anyone proven to be involved - either individuals, groups organisations or companies," he said.

Lebanon's ruling bloc has been locked in a political battle with the Hezbollah-led opposition for the last 16 months.

Network 'targeted'

Hezbollah has admitted that it possesses its own communication network, but has refused to heed government calls to dismantle it.

The organisation, which has an armed wing, says the network is necessary to protect its security in what it calls its resistance against Israel, Lebanon's southern neighbour.

"Hezbollah's telecommunications network is tantamount to Hezbollah's arms and those who are taking aim at the telecommunications network are targeting our arms. They are calling on us not to fight Israel," Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general, said on Tuesday.

"The decision to ... dismantle the system legally, and by force, does seem to be the beginning of a military confrontation"

Ahmad Moussalli, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera that the government action against Hezbollah's communication system hinted at the deepening of an already tense conflict.

"It is a beginning of a war that has started with the communications issue. The communications system that Hezbollah has, was ... instrumental in its defeat of the Israeli invasion [in July 2006]," he said.

"The government has made an indirect declaration of war. The decision to ... dismantle the system legally, and by force, does seem to be the beginning of a military confrontation."

Moussalli said that previous Lebanese governments had agreed with Hezbollah's resistance role, and the systems necessary to sustain it.

"Therefore we are seeing a change of attitude [towards Hezbollah] - not only rhetorically, but by the cabinet's decision to pursue Hezbollah's telecoms network," he said.