Marten Youssef Confident Lebanon Will Meet Obligation to Fund STL

Spokesman for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Marten Youssef stated that Lebanon has not yet provided its share of the funding of the tribunal for 2013, reported An Nahar daily on Wednesday.

He told the daily that he is confident that Lebanon will commit to its obligation to fund the STL as it had done since the tribunal was formed in 2009.

The tribunal will continue its work and it won't stop, but Lebanon has to pay the obligatory 49 percent of the total budget, he added.

Commenting on the search for the four suspects linked to the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Youssef said that the Lebanese authorities are sending to STL President Judge Sir David Baragwanath a monthly report on these efforts.

The authorities have so far failed to apprehend the suspects, who are Hizbullah members.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the STL denied media reports that Youssef had warned in a previous interview that Lebanon will face sanctions if it does not contribute to the budget.

It said via Twitter that such a case is the United Nations “Security Council's prerogative.”

It also denied that he had stated that a “grand truth” in Hariri's assassination will be revealed.

The STL is investigating the suicide attack that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut in February 2005.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati said in May that his cabinet cannot pay Lebanon's share of the STL funding.

“The caretaker cabinet cannot be responsible for the matter as it falls under current expenditure,” Miqati explained at the time, implying that the succeeding cabinet should deal with the matter.

According to An Nahar newspaper in May, if Lebanon failed to pay the funds on time then the U.N. could pay from its allocations until the new government is formed.

Lebanon is obligated to pay around $33 million, which is 49 percent of the STL's budget.