BEIRUT: While the surprise move by Prime Minister Najib Mikati to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was welcomed publicly by a politicians in the March 14 coalition Wednesday, members of the Free Patriotic Movement bloc were of two minds on the matter.

A senior FPM official stressed that the decision to pay Lebanon’s share of funding was made only by Mikati and not by the government.

“The decision to fund the STL is Mikati’s personal choice,” Culture Minister Gaby Layyoun told The Daily Star.

FPM leader Michel Aoun has repeatedly come out against funding the STL and has described the U.N.-backed court as unconstitutional.

“We still don’t know how Mikati came up with this decision ... we also don’t know from where he got the funds,” said Layyoun, adding that no one in the government was consulted by Mikati before his decision.

“Like everyone else, I was surprised by Mikati’s surprising decision,” said Layyoun adding that the move would not render the STL “legitimate.”

But Layyoun’s colleague in the FPM, Metn MP Ghassan Moukheiber, welcomed Mikati’s announcement, saying that it should be considered a sign of the country’s commitment to justice and its willingness to end impunity.

Moukheiber told The Daily Star that the STL represented the enforcement of international law.

“It is Lebanon’s duty to be committed to international law and it is a duty to cooperate with the STL,” he said. “My colleagues know very well what my stance toward the STL is.”

According to Moukheiber, officials in the country should also work to improve Lebanon’s judicial system. “There is still more work to be done on the local judiciary so that it becomes closer to international judicial standards,” he said.

On the other side of the political divide, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said that the decision to fund the STL was a positive move, in line with the demands of the Lebanese people.

“But why put the country in a very long crisis, and subject it to international pressure and tension over the funding and then simply fund the STL?” asked Siniora during a meeting with officials at Sidon’s Grand Serail.

Siniora was less than enthusiastic about the manner in which Mikati announced the payment of the country’s dues to the STL, which will come out of the budget of the Higher Relief Committee attached to the prime minister’s office.

“Enough fooling people ... such practices have become funny and sad,” Siniora said.

The STL’s funding has been a subject of dispute between March 8 ministers and Mikati since the formation of the Cabinet in June. Vowing to respect Lebanon’s international commitments, Mikati warned last week that he would resign if the Cabinet failed to pay Lebanon’s dues to the STL.

In a news conference at the Grand Serail Wednesday, Mikati announced that he had transferred the country’s share of its annual funding to the STL, an amount just over $32 million.

Minyeh MP Ahmad Fatfat said that the funding of the court undermined all attacks against it, especially by Aoun and Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah.

In an interview with the Central News Agency, Fatfat said that the Syrian regime had played a role Wednesday’s decision to fund the STL.

“The Syrians ordered the preservation of the government and the funding of the STL,” said Fatfat.

For his part, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea urged Hezbollah to fully cooperate with the tribunal, saying that the party cannot keep on accusing the court of being a U.S.-Israeli tool.

“Hezbollah and its allies cannot claim that the tribunal is U.S.-Israeli anymore and if Hezbollah wants to retain credibility in the public’s eyes.”

The party also needs to recognize the court first and hand over the four accused as well as follow up on the court proceedings within legal means,” Geagea told reporters in his residence in Maarab.

Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani also welcomed the move and congratulated Mikati on saving the country from any possible confrontation with the international community.

“Mikati’s decision to fund the STL saved Lebanon and the Lebanese many conflicts and it helps bring the perpetrators of Hariri’s assassination to justice,” Qabbani said in a statement following a telephone conversation with Mikati.