Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi stressed Thursday that caretaker Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas was not prevented by the ISF from entering one of the ministry’s buildings in al-Adlieh area, noting that “employees and officials can access the building, but not with the aim of dismantling the installations.”
Rifi said the ISF Intelligence Bureau agents thwarted the attempt to dismantle the installations according to an official memo from OGERO Telecom General Director Abdul Monem Youssef, in which the general director “demanded the protection of the installations OGERO was assigned to run according to a cabinet resolution issued in 2007.”
“The dismantling of these installations requires another resolution by the cabinet,” Rifi clarified.
Asked by reporters about the presence of a video showing the minister being prevented by security forces from entering the building, Rifi said: “If they’ve fabricated the video in that manner, let them do whatever they want.”
The ISF chief said the dispute with the caretaker telecom minister dates back to one month ago, “when we were denied (telecom) data amid the peak of our hunt for the (kidnapped) seven Estonians and the slayers of our martyr, Rashed Sabri.”
“Suddenly, someone had given the orders, and we know the identity of the people behind” those orders, Rifi added.
He noted that he has asked all the authorities concerned to coerce the telecom ministry into providing the ISF with the telecom data, “but no one has responded so far.”
“It seems that the minister lacks the minimum level of patriotism and national responsibility,” Rifi charged.
“We will not be lenient concerning the souls of our martyrs or in pursuing the abductors of the seven Estonians and the murderers of Rashed Sabri, whoever they may be,” he went on to say.
Asked about the connection between all those files, Rifi pointed out that Nahhas “does not listen to anyone at all.”
“If the minister thinks that he can affect us or confuse us in this manner, we remind him that we had battled Fatah al-Islam and (its leader) Shaker al-Absi without trembling,” Rifi added.
Later Thursday, Rifi told Saudi news website Elaph.com that he was studying a request he received from caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud – who in the wake of the incident announced that he will no longer carry out his duties as a caretaker minister – to withdraw ISF and Intelligence Bureau members from the premises of the telecom ministry building in al-Adlieh.
Rifi clarified that he consulted with caretaker premier Saad Hariri before taking his decision to dispatch the ISF personnel to the building.
The ISF chief stressed that Nahhas’ “unacceptable” action was “deliberate and coordinated with a known political party with the aim of replacing the Intelligence Bureau personnel deployed at the building with army troops.”
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