Opposition Coordinates Stances on Cabinet’s Possible Rejection to Fund STL
The March 14 forces are coordinating their stances ahead of a possible announcement by Premier Najib Miqati that his government would refuse to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, opposition leadership sources said.
The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that former Premier Saad Hariri, who is currently aboard, is holding large-scale consultations in case Miqati announces that his negotiations with the March 8 forces on the STL funding have reached a dead-end.
“Miqati will have the appropriate stance as soon as he is informed by his allies that they don’t intend to fund” the tribunal that is set to try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins, they said.
The sources added that his stances would be in harmony with the commitments he made in New York last month to pay Lebanon’s share from the STL funds.
For now, Miqati has adopted a policy of “positive coexistence” with the international community and he won’t remain silent to a decision by the Hizbullah-led March 8 forces to reject the funding out of his keenness on his ties with the Arab world, the sources said.
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, who along with President Michel Suleiman and Miqati support the court’s funding, has criticized the campaigns against the prime minister.
Jumblat has called for embracing Miqati, saying the rejection to fund the STL would fulfill the ambitions of the March 14-led opposition to bring down Miqati’s government, the sources told al-Hayat.
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