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.

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.

The March 14 forces and Hizbullah have engaged in a war of words over the “militia practices” in the facility affiliated with the telecommunications ministry in Beirut’s Adliyeh area on Thursday.

The March 14 general-secretariat said in a statement on Saturday in reference to Hizbullah that “the militia” which turned its arms against the Lebanese during the May 7, 2008 events and carried out a “coup” against Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s government in January this year “does not have the right to accuse anyone of making a coup against the state and its institutions.”

An agreement was reached Friday between the army and the Internal Security Forces under which the army became in charge of the second floor of the telecom ministry building in al-Adlieh district, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Consequently, the (OGERO Telecom mobile phone station) installations located on the floor have become in the army’s custody,” NNA added.

Hizbullah condemned on Friday the incident at a Telecommunications Ministry building at Adlieh on Thursday, saying that it raises questions over whether Lebanon has official security forces or statelets independent of the state.

It said in a statement: “Yesterday’s development is an indication that Lebanon’s institutions are at risk of being emptied of their constitutional and legal elements in favor of personal interests of sides claiming to respect the state while they are actually seeking to destroy it.”

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.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri has urged the judicial authority to follow-up the attempt by Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas “to put his hands on the third telecommunications network,” a statement released by his press office said.

Hariri stressed that “he doesn’t object that the competent judicial authority takes up this issue to determine why the Minister of Telecommunications overruled the decisions of the Council of Ministers,” said the press release.

Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud announced on Thursday that he will no longer carry out his duties as a caretaker minister.

He said during a press conference in response to this morning’s incidents at one of the Telecommunications Ministry buildings in the Adlieh district: “It appears to me that reason in Lebanon has taken a holiday and the law has become a point of view.”