oseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: Although Nouhad Al Mashnouq, the Minister of Interior, tried
to quell security concerns in the aftermath of the BLOM Bank
headquarters bombing on June 12, the cabinet once again postponed a
discussion of the sorely contentious fate of the State Security agency
that became an orphan institution after senior government officials
abandoned it.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Tammam Salam convened
the cabinet in the absence of three resigned ministers — Ashraf Rifi
(Justice), Alain Hakim (Economy) and Sejaan Qazzi (Labor) — amid growing
tensions within the ranks, presumably to finally tackle hot files,
including the OGERO Telecommunications scandal, but it decided to
postpone discussions on the topic for two weeks.

Telecommunications
Minister Butros Harb was tasked with preparing another detailed report
within 15 days about OGERO’s situation and, more important, on the
various tasks and jurisdictions enjoyed by Director-General Abdul Moneim
Youssef to determine if there is any conflict of interest.

On
Wednesday, State Security chief Major-General George Qaraa issued a
decree — which was duly forwarded to the Prime Minister — in which he
“retired” his deputy, Brigadier general Mohammad Tufaili, because, Qaraa
insisted, Tufaily “reached the retirement age stipulated by law”. The
two officers seldom got along and this may actually be a case of
personality clashes although far more sinister sectarian reasons were
also at play.

Qaraa is the only Christian officer that holds any
internal security responsibilities, something that has not gone
unnoticed in a country where all senior positions are apportioned along
sectarian lines.

Speaking to reporters before the cabinet session, Education Minister
Elias Bou Saab (Free Patriotic Movement) ruled out that the fate of
these two State Security officers would be tackled any time soon, hoping
that both would avoid decisions that might “create obstacles and
paralyse the government” further, which implied that FPM ministers may
not accept an imposed settlement.

For now, the lingering dispute
between Qaraa and Tufaili has, for all practical purposes, paralysed the
State Security agency and deprived it of funding as Minister of Finance
Ali Hassan Khalil, who was absent from the cabinet meeting on Thursday,
rejected Qaraa’s requests. Qaraa is backed by the FPM and other
Christian ministers while Tufaili is reportedly backed by Khalil, Nouhad
Al Mashnouq, and the ministers of the Progressive Socialist Party.

The
dispute took on an ugly sectarian dimension in recent months as
Christian political parties and ministers described Qaraa’s exclusion
from high-level security meetings at the Grand Serail [Government House,
which is the seat of the government] along with the financial “siege”
that is imposed on the agency by Khalil as an “encroachment on the
rights of Christians in state institutions”.