Now Lebanon - As-Safir: Mikati rejects Berri’s move on STL funding issue, November 25, 2011

Prime Minister Najib Mikati has rejected a suggestion by Speaker Nabih Berri to remove the issue of funding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon from the agenda of the cabinet’s November 30 session, a daily reported Friday.

According to As-Safir newspaper, “President Michel Sleiman was also against the idea.”

The paper quoted Sleiman as telling Berri that he is “personally in favor of providing [Lebanon’s annual share of] funding to the STL.”

As-Safir also said that Berri is seeking to “alleviate [tension] instigated by the STL funding issue… by proposing to [take out] the matter from the agenda of the cabinet’s next meeting.”

Mikati’s government is dominated by Hezbollah and its allies, which are insisting that the country cease all cooperation with the Netherlands-based court, set up in the wake of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 murder.

The STL has charged four Hezbollah operatives in connection with the assassination.

Lebanon contributes 49 percent of the STL’s annual funding.

-NOW Lebanon