Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri met with Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil on Wednesday to discuss obstacles facing a Cabinet lineup.
Bassil was assigned by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to talk with Hariri during his travel abroad.

Hariri and Aoun met at Baabda Palace on Monday in the first direct meeting between the two sides and both men pledged to continue talks despite the “many difficulties.”

Bassil left Qoreitem on Wednesday without making any statement.

The daily As-Safir had said the talks will focus on two proposals for a new government – key ministers and a Cabinet of political leaders.

Hariri’s office on Tuesday, however, denied reports published by As-Safir and Al-Akhbar that the premier-designate had made new offers to Aoun.

The parliamentary majority and the Opposition had agreed on a 15-10-5 Cabinet makeup which grants the majority 15 ministers, the Opposition 10 and President Michel Suleiman 5, guaranteeing the president the tipping vote.

As-Safir said Wednesday Hariri is expected to share his views with Bassil regarding the new proposals for a Cabinet lineup.

Al-Liwaa newspaper, for its part, said Bassil’s visit to Qoreitem is to follow up on ideas for a Cabinet makeup discussed by Hariri and Aoun is Baabda.

Interim Telecoms Minister Jebran Bassil called Thursday on authorities to widen an investigation into the Barouk station case and said its satellite dish was directed toward Israel.
Speaking at a press conference, Bassil said Israel was the only side that stood to benefit from the station.

“If a serious investigation is opened into the matter, then all the details will be known, such as how the equipments were purchased and set up,” he said. He added that there was also a “business angle to the whole affair.

Bassil defended his statements on the issue saying they did not “undermine the judiciary.” He stressed that judicial services had “the potentials to uncover the circumstances behind the case.”

“There are many files that we referred to the council of ministers and were not discussed,” he said, adding that higher authorities were “hindering our work to confront these violations.”

“We give the judiciary the information we to enable it to reach the facts not to underestimate their significance,” he added.

“The person who set up the Barouk network knows exactly to which direction he pointed it,” Bassil added.

Marada movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh ruled out Tuesday that caretaker Telecoms Minister Jebran Bassil’s nomination in a future government is not the obstacle for the Cabinet formation.
Franjieh was speaking after a meeting with Tashnag Secretary General Hovig Mekhtarian and MP Hagop Pakradounian.

He said MP Michel Aoun’s “insistence on appointing Bassil came as a result of the majority’s total refusal of Pakradounian’s nomination and its campaign against him.”

Franjieh indicated that while “the Cabinet is stalled, the country is progressing,” and expressed his admiration of the Lebanese people, “who find an alternative to all kinds of situations.”

He concluded that Aoun’s was in his full right as he represents “a large parliamentary bloc.”

BEIRUT: Caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar and Telecommunication Minister Jebran Bassil traded blame over the weekend regarding the case of the illegal internet and telecommunications company in Barouk. Najjar denied on Saturday that the Justice Ministry had received any reports or information from the Telecommunications Ministry about an Israeli transmission station located in the mountainous region of Barouk.

“The Lebanese judiciary did not receive any technical reports or information, either from the Telecommunications Ministry or any other party regarding any Israeli transmission station in Barouk Hill or [that the station was] directing its satellite dishes toward the south [Lebanon] or used sophisticated Israeli-made equipment,” Najjar said.

Najjar added that the Barouk internet station had been given a license by former Telecommunications Minister Jean Louis Qardahi in 2004, while former Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh had refused to grant the station domestic interconnection in 2007
In response to Najjar, Bassil stressed that the judicial authorities had been aware of the case since April 2, adding that his ministry had asked the public prosecution for permission to shut down the station and acted accordingly.

“The question is not whether the judiciary was aware of the case but rather if the justice minister knew what was happening in the judiciary [institution],” Bassil told An-Nahar newspaper in remarks published on Sunday.

Criticizing Najjar for attempting to underestimate the case’s importance, Bassil said the justice minister issued a false statement which said the station was unrelated to the internet but rather operated in television broadcasting.

Bassil underscored that after his confirmation, the station had transmitted 300 megabits of internet bandwidth. – The Daily Star, with Naharnet