Extension of STL Mandate Begins to Take Course as Beirut Fails to Make Observations

The renewal of the protocol signed between the Lebanese government and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will likely take effect soon after Beirut failed to make its observations, al-Liwaa daily reported Saturday.

The newspaper said that a document calling on the U.N. Security Council to renew the tribunal’s mandate became part of the official U.N. documents on Friday at around 5:00 pm New York time and will likely be approved soon if the Council expresses no reservations on it.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon had sent a letter to Lebanese authorities asking for Lebanon’s comments by Feb. 15 on the plan to extend the mandate of the STL for another three years.

The mandate of the court, which will try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins, expires on March 1.

But the Lebanese government failed to meet to discuss Lebanon’s observations due to a cabinet crisis that erupted on Feb. 1. Premier Najib Miqati suspended the sessions after he accused ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun of hindering the government’s work.

Some reports had said that Miqati suspended the sessions to avert a clash among cabinet ministers over the protocol’s renewal although the role of the Hizbullah-led government is only observatory.

Hizbullah strongly opposes the STL which has indicted four of its members in Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.