Lebanese communications minister Marwan Hamadeh told the US that the network covered Palestinian camps, Hezbollah training camps and penetrated deep into Christian areas. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA Lebanon's western-backed government warned its friends that "Iran telecom" was taking over the country two years ago when it uncovered a secret communications network across the country used by Hezbollah, according to a US state department cable.
The discovery in April 2008 came against a background of mounting tensions between the Beirut government and the Iranian-backed Shia organisation, which escalated into street fighting in the capital just weeks later.
The US document, classified secret/noforn (not for foreign eyes) exposes deep regional and international concerns about the volatile situation in Lebanon amid fears of a new clash with Israel following the 2006 war.
Information on the Hezbollah fibre optics network, allegedly financed by Iran, was immediately passed to the US, Saudi Arabia and others by Lebanese ministers. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy was "stunned" by the discovery, the US embassy reported.
The Lebanese are bound to assume that the information also went to Israel, for whom Hezbollah is a significant enemy and priority intelligence target.
The US cable is one of several that have been published in Beirut by the leftwing al-Akhbar newspaper which has apparently been leaked as part of the WikiLeaks cache obtained by the Guardian, the New York Times and three continental European publications.
Al-Akhbar has highlighted contacts between the March 14 movement led by the current prime minister Saad al-Hariri, the US and the Saudis, prompting denials or defensive reactions from those named.
Marwan Hamadeh, the Lebanese minister of communications, warned the US charge d'affaires of the risks involved after Hezbollah indicated it would see any action against the telecoms network as "equal to an Israeli act of aggression".
Hamadeh also reported interference with Lebanese mobile communications by Syria and Israel.
The discovery of the telecoms system was linked to the demand, anchored in UN resolution 1701 but never implemented, that Hezbollah disarm after the 2006 war with Israel. Hezbollah told Lebanese intelligence that the communications network was "a key part of its arsenal".
Hamadeh told the Americans that the network ran from Beirut, into the south below the Litani river and back up through the Bekaa valley to the far north, covering Palestinian camps, Hezbollah training camps and penetrating deep into Christian areas. He cited the Iranian Fund for the Reconstruction of Lebanon as the source of the funding. This group had been rebuilding roads and bridges since the 2006 war and had been accused of installing telecommunications lines in parallel with new roads.
Other leaked US cables underline the nervousness of the Lebanese government over the fibre-optics affair: "A … public accusation against Hezbollah would beg the same question as to why the government of Lebanon did not remove Hezbollah's tanks, and entailed military risks for the government," the embassy reported later.
"Hamadeh highlights the system as a strategic victory for Iran since it creates an important Iranian outpost in Lebanon, bypassing Syria," Washington was told. "He sees the value for the Iranians as strategic, rather than technical or economic. The value for Hizballah is the final step in creating a nation state. Hizballah now has an army and weapons; a television station; an education system; hospitals; social services; a financial system; and a telecommunications system."
Hamadeh has described the US cable quoting him as "a story full of slanders and fabrications" and declined to comment further to Lebanese media.
Lebanon's defence minister, Elias Murr – reported in other leaked documents as telling US officials that the army would not involve itself in a future Israeli attack on Lebanon – said the allegations sought to cause unrest. "The information posted by WikiLeaks is not complete and is not accurate," said an aide, George Soulage. "The aim behind this is to sow discord in Lebanon."
Ian Black guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 December 2010