The Daily Star - Mikati holds unannounced meeting with STL registrar - September 06, 2011

BEIRUT: An unannouncedmeeting between Prime Minister Najib Mikati and a representative from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon took place early Monday at the Grand Serail, sources told The Daily Star. Mikati met STL Registrar Herman von Hebel at the Grand Serail in Downtown Beirut.
Hours after the meeting took place, a statement from the prime minister’s office confirmed that the two had met.
This is the first meeting between Mikati and an STL official since the release of indictments in June against four members of Hezbollah in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in the 2005.
The meeting comes following a pledge by Mikati to fund the STL.
“It is in Lebanon’s interest to fund the tribunal and the government does whatever is in the interest of Lebanon,” Mikati said in an interview with Al-Hayat newspaper published Friday.
Von Hebel arrived in Lebanon Friday from Paris as part of an STL delegation that included Lisa Hartevelt, a lawyer from the Special Tribunal, and French security officer Gwenael Groajou.
Lebanon has not yet paid the 49 percent share of the court’s funding for 2011, amounting to $65 million, which it is obliged to pay under the U.N. Security Council resolution that established the court.