US Admits Request to Establish Telecommunication Station, Lebanon Rejects Diplomatic Violation

Local Editor

Days of silence passed before the US embassy in Beirut admitted Wednesday that it seeks to build a Telecommunication station for its army in Lebanon.

In its statement, the embassy stated: "A request for bandwidth access for internet use on behalf of the US military was made by a US law firm acting for the private company that provides internet service for the US military."
"The law firm was instructed to submit this request directly to the Ministry of Telecommunications by staff at the Ministry," it added.

Meanwhile, al-Manar channel revealed that the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications informed the US firm that its request to create a station in Lebanon is unacceptable, because it did not take into account diplomacy assets.
According to the ministry, such requests must be submitted through the Lebanese foreign ministry.

In parallel, as-Safir Lebanese daily noted that the US request was present in Wednesdays' parliamentary meeting in Ain Tineh.
In this context, Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri met Chairman of Communications and Media parliamentary committee, Hassan Fadlallah.
"The path of the US request violated all diplomatic norms," the committee's sources told the daily, and noted that "this made Telecommunications minister Nicolas Sehnaoui reject the demand in its form, before discussing its contents, which also involves national security threat to Lebanon."

Source: al-Ahed News, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org