Now Lebanon - Commission to continue debating STL funding clause in evening session - September 16, 2010

A fractious Thursday morning discussion over the 2010 state budget clause related to Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) funding is set to continue in the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Commission’s evening session, NOW Lebanon’s correspondent reported.

During the morning session, March 14 MPs insisted on discussing the clause while March 8 MPs refused. At the end of the discussion, Hezbollah MPs Ali Fayyad and Hassan Fadlallah pushed for a vote on the clause, the correspondent said, adding, however, that two March 14 commission members were absent.

Change and Reform bloc MP Abbas Hashem backed the move, but commission head MP Ibrahim Kanaan – also a Change and Reform bloc member – proposed that the discussion be postponed to September 27, when other disputed clauses are set to be considered.

Members could not agree on this proposal, so the discussion will continue in the Thursday evening session starting at 5 p.m., NOW’s correspondent said.

Afterward, a March 14 MP commented that Hezbollah MPs were clearly trying to overthrow the STL and “the period of forbearance ended in September,” the correspondent also said.

The commission has approved all of the Justice Ministry’s portion of the 2010 state budget with the exception of this clause, he added.