Mustaqbal Asks Govt. to Shun 'Vague Stances' over STL Funding
The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s government to pay Lebanon’s 49% annual share of funds to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon “as soon as possible” and urged it to address the issue “in a serious manner and away from vague stances.”
“What the camp bolstered by the hegemony of weapons does not comprehend is that the issue is related to a national and ethical cause and to the reputation of the Lebanese state and institutions,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.
“The president of the Lebanese Republic has voiced his commitment to the issue of the tribunal and the international treaties on more than one occasion, the premier has also repeated that more than once, and both of them have reiterated (their commitment) at international forums, therefore it is not possible anymore to evade these obligations,” the bloc added.
“In this regard, the current government is in a delicate and critical position that affects Lebanon’s reputation and credibility, especially that it comprises political parties that have publicly boasted that they are protecting the accused and rejecting cooperation with the tribunal,” it said.
The bloc noted that it is “neither reasonable nor acceptable” for a party whose members have been indicted by the STL to take part in shaping the government’s decisions on the U.N.-backed court.
Addressing the latest accusations voiced by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun against several Mustaqbal-affiliated civil servants, the bloc said Aoun was trying to “unduly accuse employees of corruption without a legal justification.”
It accused Aoun of practicing “political spite and revenge,” and pressuring the judicial authorities to “acquit some individuals of the charge of communicating and collaborating with the Israeli enemy, like in Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam’s case.”
“These practices highlight the collapse of these political parties’ ethical and patriotic standards, not to mention that they represent political reprisal against employees who have been abiding by the law and who enjoy competence and loyalty to their country and institutions,” the bloc said, stressing that “it is unacceptable to attack them without a legal justification.”
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