Aoun Rejects Miqati’s ‘Illegal Commitments’ Abroad, Says ‘No’ to STL Funding
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun stressed on Monday that his parliamentary bloc fully rejects the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in a stance that he described as independent from the position of other parties.
“No to the funding of the court no matter what the stance of our political allies are,” Aoun told An Nahar daily in an interview published Monday.
“This stance is our own and is independent from that of other parties,” he said, adding that “Hizbullah could agree (to fund the STL) but we don’t.”
“It is a matter of principle. We can’t pay money to the international tribunal without an understanding or an agreement between us and the Security Council,” the head of the Change and Reform bloc told his interviewer.
While stressing that his rejection to fund the court didn’t mean he was against justice or the trial of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins, Aoun said that the tribunal funds were being spent illegally.
He slammed the STL as illegitimate for being established by the Security Council under chapter 7 of the U.N. charter. “This happens only if there was a danger to international peace but this danger never existed.”
Asked how he would confront the funding that is supported by Premier Najib Miqati and Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi, Aoun said: “They are violating the laws and the Lebanese constitution.”
“No one can make illegal commitments and impose them on me,” he told An Nahar about promises made by Miqati in New York to pay Lebanon’s share to the tribunal.
When told that Miqati, Safadi and National Struggle Front bloc leader Walid Jumblat are backing the funding of the court, Aoun said: “Let them pay from their own wealth.”
The FPM chief refuted rumors that the government would collapse over the dispute on the funding, stressing that the cabinet’s existence was not in danger.
“Those who want to leave (the cabinet) over the funding have already planned to get out of it,” Aoun said, adding “no one can extort us internationally and scare us.”
Turning to the situation in Syria, he said the Syrian regime has crossed the line of danger.
The Syrian people should “choose between calm democratic change and blood,” he said, adding: “I believe the majority wants calm progress that’s why President Bashar Assad’s (reform) program is getting enough support.”
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