STL Funding Consultations to Gain Momentum after Eid al-Adha
Consultations between the major parties represented in the cabinet over the funding of the international tribunal are expected to gain “serious momentum” following Eid al-Adha over the weekend, ministerial sources said.
The sources told An Nahar daily on Monday that all officials involved in the funding are now aware of the serious consequences if the cabinet fails to fund by the end of November the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.
They warned that after that date the international community would start to consider the government’s procrastination as an attempt to target the STL and escape from its dues.
Lebanon should pay an annual share to the court in 2011 of about $33 million or 49 percent of the court's budget. But the cabinet’s Hizbullah-led March 8 sources have rejected to fund the STL despite insistence by the centrists, including PM Najib Miqati, to pay Lebanon’s dues.
On Sunday, Miqati told An Nahar that he expected a positive outcome from the consultations between the different government members. The sources said that the prime minister’s positive expectations will go hand-in-hand with his scheduled trip to Britain over the weekend.
They expected the month of November to witness a solution to the funding crisis by a series of financial steps that the cabinet would take or by putting the issue up to vote.
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