BEIRUT: A near agreement to avert the government’s collapse over a dispute on funding the U.N.-backed court has been reached on the eve of a crucial Cabinet session to vote on the issue, a senior source in the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance said Tuesday.
The source added that a formula had been devised in which funding for the STL would be realized through sources other than the Cabinet or Parliament. The source did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed that a Cabinet session to vote on the controversial funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will be held as scheduled Wednesday at Baabda Palace.
“I think there is a solution being worked out to ensure the financing of the tribunal and the survival of the government. Some progress has been toward a solution satisfactory to all the parties,” the March 8 source said.
He added that progress has been made following contacts made by Speaker Nabih Berri with all the parties that make up Mikati’s Cabinet. “Work is under way now to finalize this win-win solution,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Berri met with Mikati Tuesday morning as part of his contacts to solve the crisis over the payment of Lebanon’s $36 million share to the STL’s annual budget.
Berri also met with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt with whom he discussed a possible solution for the STL’s funding and Wednesday’s Cabinet session. Jumblatt supports the STL’s funding and has called on Hezbollah to let the funding pass in the Cabinet, saying this is in Lebanon’s national interest.
Jumblatt, who has three ministers in the Cabinet, told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television Tuesday night that the survival of the government was essential for the country. “There is no interest for anyone for the country to enter into a vacuum,” he said.
The crisis over the STL’s funding is threatening to bring down Mikati’s five-month-old Cabinet which is dominated by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies. Putting the funding up for a vote is widely expected to be blocked by Hezbollah and its allies who have a majority in Mikati’s 30-member Cabinet.
Mikati has warned that he would resign if the Cabinet fails to approve paying Lebanon’s dues to the STL, which is probing the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Mikati, who met Tuesday with Hezbollah’s State Minister for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish to discuss a solution for the STL’s funding, told reporters at the Grand Serail: “Work is under way to find a solution to the issue of financing the international tribunal. The doors are open. But there is nothing final yet.”
He said Wednesday’s Cabinet session will be held as scheduled. “It is natural for the session to be held. I will call for another session if tomorrow’s session was not held. I will make the appropriate contacts.”
Asked to comment on Fneish’s statement that Hezbollah supported the government’s stay in office, Mikati said: “Hezbollah has confirmed that it is with keeping the government intact but it did not announce its approval of the [STL’s] funding. My position is clear on this issue: I stress the need for funding [the STL].”
Sources close to the March 8 coalition have said that there is a clear desire from all parties to keep the government intact. The sources did not rule out the possibility of postponing Wednesday’s Cabinet session.
Sources also told The Daily Star that Energy Minister Jibran Bassil from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement met with President Michel Sleiman Tuesday afternoon in a bid to postpone the Cabinet’s session to allow more time for consultations. Aoun is prepared to vote in support of the STL only if Hezbollah, his closest ally, is willing to do so as well, with sources adding that the FPM leader announced he would not be a part of any action that would harm Hezbollah.
Aoun, who staunchly opposes the STL, dismissing it as “unconstitutional,” said he was ready to cooperate to find a solution over the tribunal’s funding.
Asked whether his parliamentary Change and Reform bloc is ready to cooperate with Berri’s efforts to solve the crisis over the STL’s funding, Aoun told reporters after chairing the bloc’s weekly meeting: “We are ready to cooperate. We are open to any solution provided that it maintains stability in Lebanon and does not cause divisions and lead to a clash. For us stability first is a priority.”
Meanwhile, the parliamentary Future bloc of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri again called on Mikati to honor his pledges to fully cooperate with the STL and pay Lebanon’s share to it.
Referring to Sunday’s rally staged by the Future Movement in the northern city of Tripoli, a statement issued after the bloc’s meeting said: “The connotations that came out of the popular rally in Tripoli undoubtedly supported full cooperation with the tribunal, including handing over the accused and approving the payment of Lebanon’s financial dues to it without any delay.”
Fneish said Hezbollah and Mikati still upheld their conflicting attitudes toward the STL’s funding. Asked if Hezbollah is ready to save the government from collapse, Fneish told reporters after meeting Mikati: “We hope that the government won’t resign and that the Cabinet will decide [on the STL’s funding] as an institution and that the role of institutions be respected.”
Asked whether the country could withstand a government vacuum if Mikati resigned, Fneish said: “If you ask me about my viewpoint, I say we are for keeping the government intact, energizing its work and completing its achievements.”
He said the issue of the STL’s funding is put up for the Cabinet to decide and all the parties must respect its decision. Asked whether the Cabinet’s decision would be based on a vote, Fneish said: “Either by voting or consensus.”
He said Hezbollah’s two ministers will attend Wednesday’s session. He added that Hezbollah agrees with the FPM that there are more important issues than the tribunal that should be discussed.
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