Miqati Races to Meet STL Funding Deadline

Premier Najib Miqati is facing decisive 9 days during which he has to work hard to urge the cabinet into approving the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Miqati’s visitors quoted the prime minister as saying over the weekend that the cabinet should take the decision on the funding. “The time that we tried to gain is over.”

Miqati has already launched consultations with the Hizbullah-led March 8 forces to guarantee a way out to the funding crisis after the Shiite party announced that it refuses to fund the court that is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins.

The tribunal has indicted four Hizbullah members.

Informed sources told several newspapers on Monday that the premier’s consultations with March 8 haven’t led to positive results so far, hinting that Miqati would reach a dead-end.

The consultations that Miqati launched with Hizbullah aren’t encouraging, the sources said, stressing that the premier will continue his contacts with the March 8 forces in the coming days.

They also said the confrontation in the cabinet on the funding issue is also near.

Miqati has only agreed on the funding with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat last week, the sources said. Jumblat is not seen as an obstacle because he along with President Michel Suleiman has repeatedly announced the need to fund the court.

Lebanon has been notified by the STL that the deadline for Lebanon to pay its $33 million share is December 15.

Miqati is seeking to have the government decide on the issue, the informed sources said.

They added that the cabinet will most likely discuss the STL funding on November 30 following Miqati’s return from the Vatican where he will meet with Pope Benedict XVI.

The government has two meetings this week. It will hold a session on Wednesday at the Grand Serail and another meeting at Baabda palace on Friday to discuss the electoral draft law.