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BEIRUT: Tawhid Movement head and former MP Wiam Wahhab said Tuesday that Lebanon would not fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon adding that whoever wished to fund it, could do so at their own expense.
“If Prime Minister Najib Mikati insists on funding the STL then he should do it from his own pocket,” Wahhab said after meeting with MP Michel Aoun, head of the Reform and Change bloc, in the Beirut suburbs of Rabieh.
Ministerial sources told The Daily Star Monday that Mikati has come to the decision that Lebanon will pay its share of funds to the STL without referring to the Cabinet.
The sources said that the Prime Minister’s Office could either transfer the funds to the Foreign Ministry or the Justice Ministry, which in turn would pay the $32 million owed this month.
According to the sources, Mikati made up his mind after his return from Paris and in light of what he heard from European and U.S. officials regarding the repercussions of a failure to implement U.N. resolutions related to the STL.
The sources explained that Mikati could not bear the “disasters” that would befall Lebanon as a result of a decision to not pay Lebanon’s financial contribution.
Mikati did not coordinate his decision with Hezbollah or any other party represented in the Cabinet, the sources said, adding that the prime minister would convey what he was told in Paris that led to his decision to the factions in the Cabinet, chief among them Hezbollah.
The same sources said it was likely that Hezbollah would oppose such a step but would not make it a subject of division inside the Cabinet or make threats to withdraw its ministers from the Cabinet if the move was taken.
“If Prime Minister Najib Mikati insists on funding the STL then he should do it from his own pocket,” Wahhab said after meeting with MP Michel Aoun, head of the Reform and Change bloc, in the Beirut suburbs of Rabieh.
Ministerial sources told The Daily Star Monday that Mikati has come to the decision that Lebanon will pay its share of funds to the STL without referring to the Cabinet.
The sources said that the Prime Minister’s Office could either transfer the funds to the Foreign Ministry or the Justice Ministry, which in turn would pay the $32 million owed this month.
According to the sources, Mikati made up his mind after his return from Paris and in light of what he heard from European and U.S. officials regarding the repercussions of a failure to implement U.N. resolutions related to the STL.
The sources explained that Mikati could not bear the “disasters” that would befall Lebanon as a result of a decision to not pay Lebanon’s financial contribution.
Mikati did not coordinate his decision with Hezbollah or any other party represented in the Cabinet, the sources said, adding that the prime minister would convey what he was told in Paris that led to his decision to the factions in the Cabinet, chief among them Hezbollah.
The same sources said it was likely that Hezbollah would oppose such a step but would not make it a subject of division inside the Cabinet or make threats to withdraw its ministers from the Cabinet if the move was taken.
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