Prime Minister Najib Mikati has succeeded in postponing a duel with March 14 parties by paying Lebanon’s share of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon without provoking the ire of Hezbollah and other March 8 parties that oppose the STL’s funding, and secured for himself the confidence of Western capitals and some Arab capitals, particularly Riyadh.

However, he will have from now until March 2012, when Lebanon is due to renew the cooperation protocol with the U.N. on the STL, to make strenuous local, Arab and international efforts to avoid this political minefield.

The other issue that could prove to be as difficult as the renewal of the protocol with the United Nations involves responding in kind to Hezbollah and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun for passing the STL’s funding, which has enhanced Mikati’s image and standing within the Sunni community and also at the local, Arab and international levels, by meeting Aoun’s demands in administrative appointments.

Sources in Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc said that the opinions expressed by some of the bloc’s ministers on the manner followed by Mikati in funding the STL certainly did not reflect Aoun’s viewpoint. However, they could be viewed as a pre-emptive step, depending on the stance to be taken by Mikati on the bloc’s demands, particularly with regard to the administrative appointments.

According to the sources, Aoun’s allies, having facilitated the funding issue, will not accept that President Michel Sleiman and Mikati act alone when it comes to endorsing the appointment of Christians to key state posts. They will insist on deciding this issue before March, at least in the appointment of the president of the Higher Judicial Council. This post is almost certain to be assigned to Judge Tanous Mashlab. Such a step will make it easier for Hezbollah and Aoun’s bloc to forge ahead with the issue of “false witnesses” who allegedly misled the U.N. investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Although sources close to Mikati denied any deal had been reached with any party concerning the passing of the STL’s funding, a number of ministers loyal to the prime minister indicated in media interviews that the demands of Aoun’s ministers represent demands shared by the entire government, but that the necessary funds should be secured for them.

The sources in Aoun’s bloc said that if the FPM leader had agreed to pass the STL’s funding in exchange for promises to meet some of his demands, he would not abandon issues that Mikati considers a part of his prerogatives, and are linked to the fate of top-level Sunni state employees, such as Abdel-Monem Youssef, director-general of the Telecommunications Ministry, and the Cabinet’s Secretary-General Judge Suhail Bouji.

Pending a new Cabinet session to make up for Wednesday’s session, which was postponed, ministerial sources in Aoun’s bloc confirmed that their ministers, backed by Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, will not attend any Cabinet session unless its agenda contains their demands, at the forefront of which is the appointment of Mashlab as president of the Higher Judicial Council.