STL Funding to be Made Within Given Timeframe

Special Tribunal for Lebanon registrar Hermen von Hebel told the Lebanese officials that the funding of the tribunal isn’t limited to the current cabinet but goes back to the unpaid funds of the previous government and is worth $32 million, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A ministerial source told the daily that the cabinet will fund the STL probing the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri during the given timeframe.

Parliamentary sources close to Hizbullah and AMAL considered that the priority isn’t for the electricity crisis but for the tribunal, especially the funding, al-Liwaa newspaper reported.

The newspaper said that a high-ranking official from the international court will visit Lebanon soon to discuss the procedures that the funding will have to go through.

The official will overview the cabinet’s commitment to the issue, al-Liwaa reported.

A ministerial source said that the government will discuss the funding issue when the time is ripe.

However, parliamentary majority sources noted that the cabinet is divided between those who reject funding the STL, those who support it and the others who back it on condition that it is made from the state budget.

The first team represents Hizbullah and their allies, who consider the STL politicized. The second supports funding the tribunal to prove Lebanon’s pledge to carry out its international commitments and it’s represented by PM Najib Miqati, President Michel Suleiman and Progressive Socialist party leader MP Walid Jumblat. The sources did not specify who the third team was.