U.S. Commends Miqati's 'Strong Leadership' in Ensuring Payment of STL Financial Shares

The United States has welcomed Lebanon’s decision to fulfill its 2013 funding obligations to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, lauding caretaker Premier Najib Miqati on his strong leadership.

“We recognize and commend Prime Minister Miqati’s strong leadership in ensuring that the government met this important commitment,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said in a statement on Monday.

“We fully support the work of the Tribunal and its efforts to find and hold accountable those responsible for reprehensible and destabilizing acts of violence in Lebanon,” she said.

The STL confirmed on Monday that it has received Lebanon’s share of the 2013 budget from the Lebanese government.

The full sum of 29, 386, 609 euros, amounting to 49 per cent of the Tribunal's budget, was transferred to the Tribunal's bank account this morning by the Lebanese government, it said in a press release.

The start of trial in the case against several Hizbullah suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination is scheduled for January 16.

Harf's statement said the assassination of ex-Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah in a downtown Beirut car bombing on Friday “is a stark reminder that for too long, Lebanon has suffered from a culture of impunity for those who use murder and terror to promote their political agenda against the interests of the Lebanese people.”

She said the STL in coordination with the Lebanese government “will help end this impunity by providing a transparent, fair process to determine responsibility for the terrorist attack that killed former Prime Minister Hariri and scores of others.”

The spokeswoman appealed for continued financial support to the STL.