Charbel: Al-Hassan Political Role Won't Go On, Mustaqbal to Be Forbidden from Meddling in ISF
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Friday said “the Mustaqbal Movement and any political party will be forbidden from interfering in the Internal Security Forces’ affairs.”
In an interview with Hizbullah’s Al-Manar television, Charbel added that he will not allow ISF Intelligence Bureau chief Col. Wissam al-Hassan to carry on with playing a “political role.”
ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi “will not make statements without permission” anymore, Charbel told his interviewer, in response to a question.
Addressing the issue of administrative appointments, the minister stressed that “no dispute will erupt between the president (Michel Suleiman) and (Free Patriotic Movement leader) General Michel Aoun or among any of the political leaders over any administrative posts in my ministry.”
“I will not approve any appointment to a security post done without my consent and hadn’t I been convinced with the appointment of Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim as General Security chief, I would’ve told Hizbullah and AMAL that I would not accept him,” Charbel added.
Asked about accusations against the Lebanese authorities of standing idly by concerning the case of seven Estonians released recently after a four-month kidnap ordeal, Charbel said: “Kidnap operations happen all over the world, not only in Lebanon, so let’s await the judiciary’s probe.”
“We have arrested nine people so far and a policeman was martyred. Had it not been for the Intelligence Bureau, we would’ve not known who abducted the hostages,” he added.
Charbel said the Lebanese authorities had asked the Syrians for help in the case. “The French only helped logistically and they had nothing to do with the negotiations” to release the seven tourists, he added.
“Estonia played the main role in the release (of the seven cyclists) and I don’t know if the abductors were (Islamist) fundamentalists or whether a ransom was paid,” Charbel went on to say.
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