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Lebanese cabinet scrambles to reach a deal about funding Hariri court: newspaper

29 November 2011 23:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Efforts to avoid the collapse of the Lebanese government over the issue of funding a divisive UN- backed court probing the assassination of former Sunni Prime Minister have progressed, a senior political source told the Daily Star newspaper Tuesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"I believe there is a way that secures the funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and will keep the government intact," the source told Lebanon’s English-language newspaper in a story posted on its website.

Last week, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned that he would resign if the cabinet fails to fund the tribunal, which in late June accused four members of Shiite armed group Hezbollah of involvement in the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri.

Hezbollah and its Christian ally the Free Patriotic Movement headed by MP Michel Aoun, which together own the largest number of posts in the government, have rejected the existence of the tribunal, questioning the credibility and constitutionality of the Netherlands-based court.

Meanwhile, cabinet members intensified discussions about the issue, before a cabinet session on Wednesday which is expected to address the issue of STL funding.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri met with Mikati on Tuesday morning as part of the speaker’s attempts to resolve the disputed issue of paying Lebanon’s 36 million U.S. dollar share of the STL’ s annual budget.

Berri later met Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt also to discuss the court issue. Jumblatt said in a statement following the meeting that it was imperative that the Mikati government remains functional.