BEIRUT: The Cabinet approved its policy statement Thursday, putting an end to differences between Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Hezbollah over a U.N.-backed court probing the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Significantly, the approval of the policy statement came on the day the Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued its long-awaited indictment and arrest warrants against four Hezbollah members in Hariri’s assassination.

In its policy statement, the government stresses Lebanon’s respect for U.N. resolutions and pledges to follow the tribunal’s path in order to reach the truth in Hariri’s assassination, according to highlights of the statement released by Mikati’s press office.

The Cabinet’s move capped seven meetings held by a 12-member ministerial committee tasked with drafting the policy statement on whose basis the government will seek Parliament’s vote of confidence.

The committee’s discussions have been dominated by a dispute between Mikati and Hezbollah over the STL.

Backstage contacts between Mikati and the parties participating in the government were held to bridge the gap over the STL, which is probing Hariri’s assassination.

The approval of the policy statement came during a Cabinet session chaired by President Michel Sleiman at Baabda Palace.

The full text of the policy statement was not officially released before it is sent to Parliament. MPs will be given time to read the statement before Speaker Nabih Berri calls the legislature to debate it. Once MPs have debated the policy statement, Mikati will respond to critics from the March 14 parliamentary bloc before a vote of confidence is held. Supported by 68 MPs, Mikati’s government is assured of winning a vote of confidence from the 128-member legislature.

Mikati formed a 30-member Cabinet on June 13 in which Hezbollah and its March 8 allies have a majority, ending a political deadlock that had left the country in a power vacuum for five months.

Addressing the Cabinet session, Mikati noted that “a positive atmosphere and a constructive dialogue” dominated the ministerial committee’s meetings with a desire to accomplish the policy statement as soon as possible so that [the Cabinet] can appear before Parliament to seek confidence,” Information Minister Walid Daouk told reporters after the meeting.

“If our government wins confidence, work will begin to compensate what we missed in the past months,” Mikati said. 

“The policy statement is distinguished by its being not lengthy and not very concise. It has been drafted in a simple manner to make it clear,” Mikati said.

Mikati said the policy statement is founded on “national postulations and constants” on which the Lebanese have agreed, including the 1989 Arab-brokered Taif Accord that ended the 1975-90 Civil War.

The policy statement stresses Lebanon’s Arab and international relations and respect for U.N. resolutions, with emphasis on the government’s policy to cooperate and be open in the context of sovereignty, dignity, independence and free decision-making, Mikati said, according to Daouk. “We also stressed the united national position [based on] the tripartite [equation] of the people, the army and the resistance and commitment to [U.N.] Resolution 1701,” Mikati said.

He added that with regard to the STL, the policy statement stresses revealing the truth in Hariri’s assassination and pursuing the path of the tribunal.

The thorny issue of the STL has sharply divided the Lebanese into two rival camps: the Hezbollah-led March 8 camp which rejects the tribunal, and the March 14 camp which strongly supports it. Hezbollah and its March 8 allies have called for an end to Lebanon’s cooperation with the tribunal, which they dismissed as “an American-Israeli project” designed to incite sectarian strife.

Mikati, seeking to avoid a confrontation with the international community, has reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to international obligations, including the STL and U.N. Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon.

Mikati, according to Daouk, said the policy statement stresses the distinctive relations between Lebanon and Syria and the need to complete the implementation of agreements signed by the two countries.

“We have drawn up concise concepts to what we intend to achieve in every sector, economically, financially and at the developmental level,” Mikati said.

Following the ministers’ discussions, the Cabinet approved the policy statement in its final version, Daouk said.

Addressing the Lebanese shortly after the STL issued its indictment, Mikati said the government will deal responsibly with the development.

“Today the indictment was issued accusing individuals in the crime. This calls on us to act carefully with our keenness on stability and knowing the truth [in Hariri’s assassination] and to deal with the event responsibly and realistically,” Mikati said in remarks that were broadcast live on television. “The indictment is not verdicts. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.”

Mikati warned against those whom he said were seeking to target the country and use the indictment to incite sectarian strife.

“The government will pursue the stages that will follow the indictment and follow up the measures that come next,” he said. Mikati called on the Lebanese to protect their unity and “to prove to those who betted that the indictment will split the Lebanese that the unity of the Lebanese will be victorious.”

Asked whether the government’s respect of U.N. resolutions meant commitment to the STL, Mikati said: “We were clear in the policy statement with regard to respecting U.N. resolutions and pursuing the international tribunal’s work. There has been no change.”

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain leader, called on the Lebanese government to fully cooperate with the STL and not to evade pursuing the accused and handing them over to justice.

“The Lebanese government is invited politically, nationally, legally and morally, to implement Lebanon’s obligations toward the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and nobody has an excuse to escape from this responsibility. I humbly ask that nobody put in doubt our will or the decision of the Lebanese to persevere in order to achieve justice in the assassinations of all the Cedar Revolution martyrs, and that everybody be sure that intimidation will not help to break this will,” Hariri said in a statement released by his office.

March 14 leaders called on the government to implement the STL’s indictment warrants in order to help achieve justice.

“We will not accept any dereliction. The political authority must implement the U.N. decision. We will be watching very closely. We will not be lenient. We will use all legitimate available means so that the U.N. decision is carried out,” Kataeb Party [Phalange] leader Amin Gemayel told a news conference. He criticized what he called “foggy terms” contained in the government’s policy statement. He said such terms carry all kinds of interpretations. Gemayel called on the government to show “clarity and transparency” and implement what Lebanon is required to do

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on the government to meet all the STL’s demands. Geagea accused the government of abandoning the tribunal when it says in the policy statement that “it will pursue the STL’s path to achieve justice away from politicization and revenge in such a way so as not to affect negatively Lebanon’s stability and unity.”

“If this formula is true, the new government will have disavowed the international tribunal,” Geagea said.