Miqati: STL Funding Time that we Tried to Gain is Over

The moment of truth has come and the course of funding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has reached its final stage, visitors quoted Prime Minister Najib Miqati as saying.

The visitors told An Nahar daily published Sunday that Miqati said: “The time that we tried to gain is over and we should take the decision” on the funding.

Miqati was most likely referring to letters that he has received from the U.N. since the end of September reminding Lebanon of its dues to the tribunal that is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has warned that the deadline for Lebanon’s payment of its share is Dec. 15 saying he would have to refer the issue to the Security Council for the appropriate decision if the country rejects to fund the court.

The STL was created by a 2007 Security Council resolution at the request of Lebanon which is obligated to provide 49 percent of the budget.

Miqati’s alleged remarks came after Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi asked the cabinet for an advance from the treasury to fund the tribunal.

An Nahar said that the premier is still waiting for the response of Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi to take the appropriate decision on putting the issue on the cabinet agenda next Friday.

Safadi completed the administrative part of the file and now the political part should be resolved thought the contacts between officials, Miqati’s sources told Ad-Diyar newspaper.

They also said that the prime minister will not respond to the campaigns launched against him. “Every time the government makes an accomplishment, they snap back through a campaign.”