Aoun Rejects Miqati’s ‘Illegal Commitments’ Abroad, Says ‘No’ to STL Funding
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
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.”
10 October 2011, 08:23
17
tensio is mounting up. :)
STL is just one side of the story, the real issue at hand for Aoun is the syrian situation: they now realize it is beyond repair, thus the syrian regime will fall soon, and they will fall with it.
the vailed threats in the above comments are clear: even if some want to get out of this failed government, they will not be allowed to do so at gunpoint.
hizbushaitan will make sure the puppits in this government will stay :)
what a farce! how long do they think they can sustain such a situation?
10 October 2011, 09:00
15
Only thing rejected is Aoun the "Eunuch" (def. = "castrated one")
10 October 2011, 10:34
05
Aoun seems to master International law better than the United Nations Legal advisors...WOW!
Anyway, we know how Aoun works, anything that does not suit hil is "illegal"...
10 October 2011, 11:08
05
Yes! reform of 3000 death civilian and 181 children so far, not to mention censorship, hunting of dissidents and etc. etc. Shame on you Aoun! Shame that you really changed so much. You are now the curse of the Lebanese!
10 October 2011, 11:38
81
the real lebanese would know how the procedure goes for making big decisions in our country.
therefore, anyone who claims the legality of STL is not real lebanese.
10 October 2011, 13:12
51
Private funding is the only possible solution. Let those who want and care about a charade fund it out of their own pockets. After all, their money is as filthy as they are. As to us, the people, we are broke. 3al 7adid. We need water. We need electricity. We need food. We need to pay for the education of our children. We need jobs. We need paved roads. WE ARE FRIGGIN BROKE AND CANNOT AFFORD TO FUND A FARCE. The farce is illegal. I REPEAT: ILLEGAL. And while at it, KEEP OFF OUR BACKS with daily bombardments about funding this lame farce. It is not going to happen. END OF STORY.
10 October 2011, 15:25
23
Can't help but feel badly for this guy.... He is not at his proper place and trying to make do.....
10 October 2011, 16:02
41
To dogs' ears, they only hear barking. The point remains that only dogs bikousho, and that's the fate of the losers, aka Hariri Mafia and his Christian Sunnis. kousho wleh
10 October 2011, 16:45
15
This guy has become a shill for those who provide his patronage money to his Orangemen. His arguments are nonsensical. Votes of the UN security council are final and can only be reviewed or reversed by a vote of the UN security council. As a member of the UN Lebanon is bound by treaty to comply with it's resolutions, Aoun's bleats of "illegality" to the contrary.
Hezbollah, the provincial governor of the Iranian colony of Lebanon, does not want the STL funded, despite it's protestations that the trial would expose Israel as the perpetrator of the Hariri crime. Mikati is committed to the funding, as is Sulieman and Jumblatt. There is a reckoning coming over whether this government will stand or not, and what will come after it
10 October 2011, 16:52
13
This guy has become a shill for those who provide his patronage money to his Orangemen. His arguments are nonsensical. Votes of the UN security council are final and can only be reviewed or reversed by a vote of the UN security council. As a member of the UN Lebanon is bound by treaty to comply with it's resolutions, Aoun's bleats of "illegality" to the contrary.
Hezbollah, the provincial governor of the Iranian colony of Lebanon, does not want the STL funded, despite it's protestations that the trial would expose Israel as the perpetrator of the Hariri crime. Mikati is committed to the funding, as is Sulieman and Jumblatt. There is a reckoning coming over whether this government will stand or not, and what will come after it
10 October 2011, 17:13
51
You are the rock and the strong man of Lebanon . If you say NO , then it is NO and nothing else . Let Hariri , Mikati or others pay from their own pocket if they wish , Lebanon will say NO , NO , NO , NO , and NOOOOO to Hariristan , to Corruption , to KSA , to Salafis , to Wahhabys , and to Mahkama and its shaheed .
Hairi era is overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
10 October 2011, 18:02
14
""“This happens only if there was a danger to international peace but this danger never existed.”""
funny guy isn t he?
before he always claimed that hezbollah and syria were threats to lebanon....
10 October 2011, 18:14
01
Except for the general who was a top Israeli spy, we are with M8 all the way as long as they keep filling our pockets.
10 October 2011, 20:17
00
This category Europeans use: failed state. Does it apply to Lebanon? What does it mean? Let's forget what the Europeans mean: for them it means, we are the actual government (of Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, etc.). Do you want that classification for Lebanon?
Does it mean anything? The two words suggest this interpretation: a state is attempted but someone interferes in its success. Afghanistan and Somalia are not failed states because they have the state (form of government) that is natural to their history and circumstances--a very decentralized one. The failed state in both cases was the European-style pseudo-centralized state.
Is Lebanon naturally a decentralized state, broken up into fiefdoms, principalities, ghettos, bunkers, villas? If not, it needs a form of government suitable to a centralized state: "one person, one vote", "color-blind", loyalty is to the state not to foreign benefactors or threateners, and personal freedom and responsibility are the only heritage.
10 October 2011, 21:34
01
Mr. Aoun, please take your valium, all this tension is not good for your heart....ooops, I forgot, you have no heart, you have no conscience, you have no morals and you have no shame.
What remains? Your millions which you earned by selling us to the highest bidder or by simply stealing it right out of our own pockets.
Go to France, go now, leave us be, nothing that comes out of your mouth is real or based in logic, you know it, we know it. Fade into history please!
