STL Funding Discussions Loom as Cabinet Meets Tuesday

Cabinet discussions on the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon kick off next week amid fears that the issue would lead to a protracted crisis that would threaten Premier Najib Miqati’s government.

Cabinet ministers are scheduled to discuss the 2012draft state budget at a session at Baabda palace on Tuesday. The funding of the tribunal is the most controversial topic in the budget.

While President Michel Suleiman, Miqati and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat have backed the funding of the court, the Hizbullah-led March 8 forces have rejected it.

STL Registrar Herman von Hebel announced on Wednesday that Lebanon has 30 days to pay around $33 million as part of its share to fund the tribunal that is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.

But the issue will likely cause a new crisis, a month after the government emerged from a prolonged dispute on an electricity project. Some officials have also warned that Miqati’s cabinet would collapse if March 8 remains adamant to reject the funding.

Ministerial sources told As Safir however, that the discussions on the funding article of the draft budget would be left for a later stage, hinting that the government still has a few weeks of calm before cabinet ministers clash.

They expected Miqati to launch large-scale consultations in an effort to convince Hizbullah and its allies to fund the STL.

A ministerial source also expected in remarks to al-Liwaa newspaper that the contacts between the forces inside the cabinet would stress on the need to preserve government unity as a condition for internal stability.