Lebanon to Pay STL Share in Three Installments

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Monday that cabinet will pay Lebanon's share to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in installments.

“The exceptional approval came in light of our commitment to the STL,” Miqati said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

A ministerial source told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Sir Judge David Baragwanath agreed with senior Lebanese officials during his recent visit to Beirut that the state will pay it's share in three installments.

Miqati said in May that his cabinet cannot pay Lebanon's share of the STL funding.

He had continuously argued that a caretaker cabinet can not take such a decision, however, the funding “ exceptional approval” was taken after talks with President Michel Suleiman.

Miqati told As Safir that “when the STL sent the request, the matter was referred to the finance ministry that said payments will be met but in installments.”

“The President and I endorsed the finance ministry's request and it is carrying out the necessary measures to pay Lebanon's share,” Miqati told the newspaper.

The daily quoted him as saying: “The matter is over and took its normal course.”

Lebanon is obligated to pay around $33 million, which is 49 percent of the STL's budget.

The tribunal was formed in 2009 to investigate the suicide attack that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut in February 2005.

For his part, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper on Monday that Lebanon will transfer its share during the upcoming week.

In October, al-Safadi called on Miqati to “exceptionally” approve the funding of the STL despite the resignation of the cabinet.