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Lebanon is on the verge of a perilous civil war owing to a private telephone network built by Shiite organization Hezbollah. Telecommunications minister Marwah Hamadeh said that the landline network has been installed with the help of Hezbollah’s patron Iran. Hamdeh had recently also reveled that the network has been completed in southern Lebanon, southern Beirut, Mount Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa valley.
Israelis had two years ago jammed cellphone networks to prevent Hezbollah commanders from communicating with units in the field, but the landline network continued to function. If the landline network is attacked then it could severely curtail Hezbollah’s ability to defend itself from attacks by Israel or domestic opponents. Prime Minister Fuad Siniora’s government has declared the network illegal. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah however openly declared that who so ever would meddle with the network, his hands would be severed off. Nasrallah further added that the phone system is a ‘major weapon’ in its arsenal and it would not let the functioning of the same stop.
