Prime Minister Najib Miqati denied on Thursday that he has vowed to resign if the cabinet failed to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The denial came after al-Liwaa daily said Miqati has stressed he would submit his resignation if his allies in the cabinet Hizbullah, AMAL and the Free Patriotic Movement were not convinced of the importance of funding the STL.
Miqati held a closed-doors meeting on Tuesday with Administration and Justice Committee Chairman MP Robert Ghanem informing him of his decision, al-Liwaa said.
A source told the newspaper that the PM’s stance comes in harmony with the position of the National Struggle Front bloc ministers led by MP Walid Jumblat and ministers loyal to President Michel Suleiman.
But Miqati’s press office denied that the prime minister would resign in case the STL wasn’t funded, saying his stance from the tribunal is clear.
Miqati is seeking to find ways to resolve the issue of the STL funding, it said.
He received at the end of September a message from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon requesting that Lebanon pay its $33 million in dues.
However, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ruled out that his party will support the funding of the court, stating that if the cabinet failed to reach consensus on the matter, then it should be submitted to a vote at the parliament.
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