La bataille pour le contrôle du Ministère des télécoms : une question de renseignement et de sécurité, pas d’argent.
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/scramble-lebanon%E2%80%99s-most-valuable-ministries
Future MP Jean Ogassapian recently revealed the true value of the telecommunications ministry, noting that “Hezbollah is not going to make [forming a government] easy for Tammam Salam, for the party will not forgo the Ministry of Telecommunications, because it is a security ministry par excellance.”
The true allure of the ministry for the Future Party is not the finance aspect, but the security aspect.
For example, after the October 2012 assassination of Wissam al-Hassan, the head of the Information Branch in the Internal Security Forces (ISF), the country’s politicians fought for months over demands to release private mobile phone data to the security forces investigating the case.
More importantly, phone data is at the crux of the case built against Hezbollah members by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). The presence of FPM telecom ministers since 2008 has greatly restricted the ability of the Future Party and its security chiefs to access such critical information.
On top of that, the failure to extend ISF chief Ashraf Rifi’s term has made Future’s need for communications data more necessary than ever. The party is no longer in the mood for endless negotiations each time they want access to this information, particularly as Hezbollah’s trial in the Hague is about to begin.