If Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigns next week over the Cabinet’s failure to approve the payment of Lebanon’s share of the funding to a U.N.-backed court as he has warned, it will be difficult if not impossible to form a new government, according to ministerial sources close to the prime minister.

The sources said the situation with regard to funding the STL has changed following Mikati’s declared determination Thursday to quit if the Cabinet failed in its meeting on Nov. 30 to endorse a treasury loan for this purpose.

If Mikati is forced to resign over the STL’s funding, he will not accept being named again to form a new government, thus throwing the country into a vacuum in which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to form a new Cabinet in view of the current internal and regional political situation, sources told The Daily Star.

The sources warned that the vacuum which could be left by Mikati’s resignation would be devastating for the general situation in the country, and the paralysis could last until 2013 because it would be impossible for a caretaker Cabinet to conduct parliamentary elections.

In an interview with LBCI television Thursday night, Mikati said the divisive issue of the tribunal’s funding would be put to a vote at a crucial Cabinet meeting scheduled for Nov. 30.

The votes of more than half of the 30 Cabinet members are required to approve the requested loan for the tribunal.

But Hezbollah and its March 8 allies, which reject the STL’s funding, have a majority in the Cabinet that enables them to block any such decision.

The assessment of the opponents of the STL’s funding, particularly Hezbollah, from now until next week’s Cabinet session will be different from that which existed before Mikati’s TV interview because the interview clearly showed that his statement about resignation was not a threat or a media leak, the sources said. They added that there is a significant possibility that the opponents of the STL’s funding would take this new situation into account.

According to sources, Hezbollah and other parties making up the government stand to benefit from the presence of this government and will be the first losers if it collapses.

Therefore, the sources did not rule out the possibility that contacts might have already been launched to find a solution suitable to the concerned parties for the problem of the STL’s funding.

Hezbollah can at the last minute prevent the collapse of the government unless it has a different perspective on the situation in Lebanon and the region could change if the funding is not allocated, the sources said.

This situation requires that Mikati remain prime minister and this government stay in office to serve as the only umbrella to protect Lebanon, the Lebanese and the resistance against internal and external strikes as much as possible, the sources said.

They added that consultations, which have begun between Mikati and Hezbollah on the STL’s funding via several mediators, will be intensified from now until next week’s Cabinet session in an attempt to break the deadlock over paying Lebanon’s share to the tribunal’s budget.

The ministerial sources noted that certain domestic parties, namely those in the March 14 coalition, were betting on a change in the regional situation, particularly in Syria – the results of the popular uprising there would favor the side that is calling for toppling the Syrian regime, which would then see Hezbollah and its allies subsequently accept what they are rejecting today. The sources said such parties were adopting a mistaken reading of the situation, reflecting the view of Western capitals, and that this approach resulted in their loss of the government in Lebanon at the beginning of the year.