Report: Rifi Accepts Extension of his Term for Short Transitional Period

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi has said he accepted a proposal to extend his term but only for a transitional period, stressing that he rejected staying in office until his retirement age.

Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted, Rifi, 59, as saying that he agreed to extend his term for a year or two when President Michel Suleiman and ex-Premier Saad Hariri suggested the extension to him.

But Rifi, who has been the ISF chief for the past eight years, refused to stay at the helm of the police fore until his retirement age of 64.

A similar offer has been made to Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji. The terms of both security chiefs ends on April 1.

Rifi's visitors told al-Akhbar that he would never return to the ISF if the government failed to extend his term by that date. “If I get out of the institution, then I will not return to it.”

Asked whether he would resign to announce his candidacy for the parliamentary elections by heading the March 14 opposition ticket in the northern city of Tripoli, Rifi said: “I will stay till the last minute in my office as director-general of the ISF.”

“I will never announce my candidacy for the parliamentary polls,” added Rifi, who has been serving the ISF for the past forty years.

News of the extension of his term came after Rifi was planning to push forward ISF Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan to take over the post from him.

But al-Hasan was assassinated in a car bomb blast in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district on Oct. 19.

According to al-Akhbar, President Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier Najib Miqati, Hizbullah and MP Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party have announced their support for the extension of the terms of both Rifi and Qahwaji.

But a bigger agreement is needed between the March 8 majority coalition and the March 14 opposition because the extension requires the cabinet to refer a bill to parliament for approval or an urgent draft-law proposed by at least 10 lawmakers to adopt it by an absolute majority.