Aoun Says Security Council 'Imposed' STL on Lebanon
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Sunday described as “unconstitutional” the agreement signed in 2007 between Lebanon and the U.N. on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, noting that the STL was “imposed” by the U.N. Security Council.
In an interview with Hizbullah’s mouthpiece Al-Manar television, Aoun said: “There is no treaty, the agreement reached was a U.N. Security Council resolution that had unilaterally imposed the tribunal” on Lebanon.
“The parliament was bypassed, because even if the president signs it would not come into force without the parliament’s approval,” Aoun noted.
“The whole text of Article 52 of the Constitution is not being respected … and Lebanon is not obliged to finance” the U.N.-backed STL, he went on to say.
Lebanon is responsible for meeting 49 percent of the costs of the STL, which has indicted four Hizbullah members in the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafik Hariri.
But the Hizbullah-led government has yet to pay its share, estimated at $35 million for 2011, as international pressure mounts on Prime Minister Najib Miqati to uphold his avowed commitment to the STL.
Miqati in recent weeks has received a series of notifications from the court on the overdue funds.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has openly opposed Lebanon paying its annual share to the Netherlands-based STL.
Nasrallah has dismissed the court as a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy against his party, warning that no member of Hizbullah would ever be found or arrested.
over 12 years
Is it Tuesday already? No, the calendar shows it's Sunday....the hosptial needs to keep a tighter watch on old crazy patients like Aoun. He's not supposed to go out and open his mouth unless it's Tuesday.
over 12 years
Get the pajamas ready......Aoun will run out of town when ASSad goes down. Ya Aoun, the legitimate government of Lebanon signed the treaty for the STL and is bound by it.
You coup government is illegitimate and is making a mess of Lebanon.
over 12 years
And you guys say that GMA is illiterate and can't read obviously that's a big lie .
Look how easily he's reading from the al-Manar teleprompter words written to him by SHN himself and he's doing it without stuttering .
So there you have it GMA master of the game can read at a 2.7 grade level and he's hooked on phonics .
over 12 years
The STL was imposed on Lebanon...How unfair!
And all this because PM Rafik Hariri's inadvertantly tipped over his Persian carpet!
over 12 years
Mr. Aoun makes the Zionist Boygroup for Lebanon (ZBL) cry.
But he is right.
Mini-Hariri and Micro-March14 didn't respect the constitution.
That's all.
Mr Aoun, your return to Lebanon was imposed on the Lebanese and is reinforced by Syria, Iran and Hezbollah and is therefore unconstituional !!