Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas said that the telecom ministry employees in Beirut’s Adliyeh building were banned from entering the rooms where the equipment donated by China were located.

Nahhas told As Safir newspaper on Monday that “Ogero officials changed the magnetic card codes that are used to open the doors.”

Ziad Baroud has said that the settlement for the army to take over the second floor of a building affiliated with the telecommunications ministry did not mean that the crisis was solved.

Baroud, who relieved himself of his duties as caretaker interior minister last week, said that he doesn’t consider himself involved with the settlement because a solution to Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi’s rejection to abide his orders was not found yet.

President Michel Suleiman and caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, who on Thursday absolved himself from his duties at the ministry, are reportedly “inclined to refer Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi to a judicial inquiry for repeatedly disobeying their orders to pull out the ISF Intelligence Bureau personnel of the second floor of the building affiliated with the telecom ministry, where OGERO Telecom is in charge of the installations of the third mobile network donated by China to Lebanon according to a cabinet resolution.”

Sources following up on this issue told An Nahar daily in remarks published Sunday that state prosecutor Saeed Mirza has asked Suleiman and Baroud to “file a lawsuit so that the judiciary can act accordingly.”

Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas refused to describe a decision for the Lebanese army to take control of a telecom building in Beirut’s Adliyeh area as a settlement.

“What happened is a victory of the logic of the state and the law and not (a victory) of a person or a party,” Nahhas told As Safir daily in remarks published Saturday.

Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi stated on Friday that he won’t allow the mobile phone network in Lebanon to be transferred to the private sector except with the government’s approval.

He told LBC television: “The Security forces would be geld responsible if these stations are destroyed or stolen.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun urged on Friday President Michel Suleiman to take the necessary measures to address Thursday’s incident at one of the Telecommunications Ministry buildings at Adlieh, describing the event as a “premeditated crime”.

He said after an extraordinary FPM meeting on the incident: “According to the military law on rebellion and mutiny, yesterday’s incident is a crime that was part of a coup attempt.”

The March 8 forces said that as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, President Michel Suleiman should resolve the Telecommunications Ministry crisis and force all security forces to abide by his decisions.

A high-ranking March 8 source told As Safir daily in remarks published Friday that amid a caretaking cabinet and Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s decision to absolve himself from his duties, the responsibility of Suleiman lies in addressing the issue as all security forces become his subordinates.

President Michel Suleiman has reportedly ordered Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi to clear a building affiliated with the Telecommunications Ministry from his men after they prevented Caretaker Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas from entering the facility on Thursday.

Sources close to Suleiman told several Beirut dailies published Friday that after the president studied the issue legally and constitutionally, he told Rifi to abide by Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s order to pull his forces out of the building in Beirut’s al-Adliyeh area.

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s demonstration in support of the Syrian protests ended on Friday without any security incident being reported.

The demonstration, which defied a ban by Lebanese authorities, began after Friday Muslim prayers in front of al-Mansouri mosque in Tripoli and marched towards the Nijmeh square in the northern port city amid heavy security presence.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday headed a security meeting at the Center House in downtown Beirut to discuss the latest security developments in the country.

The meeting tackled “the issue of Tripoli’s demos, the incident that happened in Tyre when security forces tried to remove illegal construction violations, the issue of the kidnap of the seven Estonian citizens and the measures taken by the army and the Internal Security Forces to preserve security and stability,” Hariri’s press office said in a statement.