BEIRUT: The United Nations-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri cleared the way Thursday for the government to provide its share of tribunal funding via a presidential decree, allowing Lebanon to sidestep the Cabinet debate currently holding up its 2011 contributions to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

STL spokesperson Marten Youssef, speaking after weeks of conjecture over Lebanon’s financial contributions to the court, told The Daily Star that the tribunal would welcome governmental funding from Beirut in whatever form it came.

“The way or method the Lebanese government contributes 49 percent is a decision for them alone,” he said. “As far as the court is concerned, it is up to the Lebanese government to make its own arrangements on how to fund the tribunal and fulfill its obligations.”

As per a cooperation agreement signed with the court and mandated by U.N. Security Council 1757, Lebanon is obliged to cover 49 percent of the STL’s running costs, something it has so far failed to do in 2011.

Since the fall of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Cabinet in January, debate has raged among the political elite over whether or not Lebanon will stump up the cash. Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet has promised to honor Lebanon’s international commitments, but its policy statement stopped short of a specific pledge to fulfill its obligation to the STL.

The protracted disagreement has led to Lebanon failing to provide any financial assistance at all this year. Mikati and President Michel Sleiman, during trips this week to New York and Washington, issued the strongest hints yet that Lebanon was preparing to provide its share of the funding, which would total more than $30 million for 2011.

Mikati left for the U.N. Security Council in New York over the weekend without Cabinet’s agreement on funding. It has been suggested by several lawmakers that Lebanon could use a presidential decree – in which an agreement among prime minister, president and the justice and finance ministers could bypass a divided Cabinet – as a way of freeing up the funds.

Political sources told The Daily Star that a presidential decree would be favorable as Hezbollah, the court’s biggest detractor, would be left out of the equation.

Although there is no official deadline for Lebanon to provide STL funding, Youssef urged the government to make good on its financial support promise.

“The U.N. Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] communicated with the Lebanese government earlier in the year informing them of the financial obligation,” he said. “The STL reminds the Lebanese government of its international legal obligation to pay 49 percent of the STL budgetary expenditure.”

Youssef added that the court’s operational capability had not been hit by Lebanon’s failure to provide funding, as other donor states had taken up the slack. “We have been relying on the voluntary contributions of other countries. As a matter of policy we leave it to the contributing country to disclose its contribution,” he said.

The STL was high on the agenda this week during meetings between Sleiman and Mikati and U.N., U.S. and world leaders.

Mikati, in remarks published Thursday by pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, said that the cooperation agreement between Beirut and The Hague remained “in effect.”

“[STL] funding and implementing U.N. resolutions are in Lebanon’s interest and no one is against Lebanon’s interest,” the prime minister told the paper.

The court’s mandate, under Resolution 1757, runs until March 1, 2012.

Given that Security Council mandates are regularly updated and renewed in New York – such as the yearly renewal of Resolution 1701, which monitors the cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel following the 2006 war – it is likely that the organization will seek to continue the STL’s mandate.

Several politicians, including former Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar, have suggested that Lebanon may seek to change the parameters of 1757 when discussions on its renewal commence next year. Some speculate that Hezbollah will try and torpedo Lebanon’s cooperation with the court.

Youssef said that the STL “didn’t anticipate any changes to the resolution.”

The STL was established to find and try the assassins of Hariri, who was killed along with 22 others when a huge car bomb struck his motorcade in Downtown Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005.

The STL, which has been subject to accusations of politicization since its inception, issued its first indictment in June against four Hezbollah members and ordered Lebanese authorities to apprehend the suspects.

The four are still at large and Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah vowed they would not be handed over to the STL, “even in 300 years.”