Lebanon's Cabinet decided Tuesday to remove Beirut airport's security chief over alleged ties to the militant Hezbollah group, the country's information minister said. The decision is expected to exacerbate tension between the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.Information Minister Ghazi Aridi read a statement at the end of a marathon Cabinet meeting that began Monday evening and lasted nearly 11 hours, saying the security chief, Brig. Gen. Wafiq Shoukair, would rejoin the army. He also said the Cabinet declared that a telecommunications network used by Hezbollah for military purposes was illegal and a danger to state security.
A top Shiite cleric, Sheik Abdul-Amir Kabalan, had dismissed allegations of Shoukair's links to Hezbollah and warned Monday against any government decision to punish the airport security chief. "If there are any changes made, the airport will be out of control," Kabalan warned.
A Hezbollah spokesman said the group had no immediate comment on Tuesday's Cabinet decisions. The group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, was to respond at a Thursday news conference, Hezbollah said in a statement.
But in a televised interview aired Monday night, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Kassem warned the government against being taken in by false allegations.
The Cabinet decisions come a day after Lebanon's top prosecutor began investigating allegations that the militant group backed by Iran and Syria set up cameras near the airport to monitor the movement of anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and foreign dignitaries. The allegations were first levied by anti-Syrian leader Walid Jumblatt, who on Saturday accused Hezbollah of placing the cameras and suggested Hezbollah was planning to assassinate senior leaders by bombing aircraft.
The airport is located in the predominantly Shiite southern Beirut suburbs where the militant group has wide support. Many buildings in the area overlook the runways.
Jumblatt also said Saturday that Shoukair, whom he described as a Hezbollah loyalist, should be fired and called for the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador in Lebanon. Hezbollah dismissed the allegations concerning airport surveillance and fired back with its own accusations against Jumblatt.
Kassem, the Hezbollah deputy leader, said the group's telecommunications network was a necessity for the group's deterrence capabilities in the fight against Israel and "complemented" Hezbollah's arsenal of weapons.