Contracts of Cellular Companies Not Extended

Caretaker Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, on Tuesday said that he had refused the extension of Lebanon's state-owned operating cell phone companies' mandate shortly before the Media and Communications Parliamentary Committee convened and rejected the extension.

"Someone has ignorantly or deliberately spread a rumor saying that the Minister of Finance has inked a mandate extension decree for cell phone companies," Khalil said in a tweet.

"The news fabricated and unfounded and the entire idea of extension has been originally rejected by me," he added.

The Media and Communications Committee announced that contracts of the two Lebanese cellular companies Alpha and Touch had not been extended.

Groups of protesters have gathered outside the Parliament in line with the meeting in an attempt to voice objection against the extension.