BEIRUT: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent “a secret letter” to President Michel Sleiman asking for Lebanon’s comments by Feb. 15 on a plan to extend the mandate of a U.N.-backed court for another three years, a senior political source said Sunday.
According to the source, Ban’s letter, which requires the government to meet to give a response, was at the root of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s decision earlier this month to suspend the Cabinet’s sessions.
“The U.N. chief wants to know if the Lebanese authorities have any observations about the Security Council’s plan to renew the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Lebanese judges for another three years,” the source told The Daily Star. “The requested observations are over the three-year period only, not over the principle of renewal.”
The three-year mandate of the STL, which is trying to uncover the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, expires on March 1.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said Ban sent the letter to Sleiman about 10 days ago seeking a response ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting to decide on the issue. The letter says the proposed three-year renewal came at the request of the STL’s general prosecutor.
In view of the suspension of the Cabinet’s sessions and the split among ministers over the STL, the Cabinet will not be able to meet before Feb. 15 to discuss Lebanon’s observations, the source said.
Therefore, the most likely outcome is that Lebanon will not send any observations to Ban by Wednesday.
Mikati, who paid a two-day official visit to France last week, said that he did not discuss with French officials the extension of the STL’s cooperation protocol with Lebanon, but added that Lebanon had received a letter from Ban in this respect.
“We are consulting on this issue [renewal of STL’s mandate]. Our opinion on this subject is consultative. But the [final] decision is in the hands of the Security Council,” Mikati told Lebanese journalists based in Paris Saturday.
The Cabinet, which was split over Lebanon’s $32 million share to the tribunal’s funding, eventually had to pay the amount through the state-run Higher Relief Committee, thus averting a clash with Hezbollah and its March 8 allies. Hezbollah and its allies, who have a majority in Mikati’s 30-member Cabinet, strongly oppose the STL altogether, let alone financing it or renewing its mandate. Any Cabinet decision on the tribunal’s funding or renewal of its mandate was expected to be voted down by Hezbollah and its allies.
Mikati’s decision to suspend the Cabinet’s sessions was viewed as a solution for the government to avert a clash with the Hezbollah-led March 8 bloc over the renewal of the STL’s mandate.
Mikati has implicitly accused Aoun’s ministers of obstructing the Cabinet’s work, saying he will not allow anyone to undermine the prime minister’s prerogatives. He has since said that he will not resume Cabinet sessions before agreement is reached on a formula to make the government productive.
Mikati called off Cabinet sessions on Feb. 1 following sharp differences with ministers from MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc over the thorny issue of civil service appointments.
Meanwhile, Mikati will resume his activity from his residence in Verdun Monday after his return from an official visit to France amid signs that the Cabinet is unlikely to meet soon pending efforts by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to end the row between Mikati and Aoun’s ministers over the appointments in the public administration.
Sleiman has entered the fray, taking Mikati’s stand when he said that Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, one of Aoun’s ministers, must sign the transportation allowance decree or else he should be replaced. Mikati has cited Nahhas’ refusal to sign the transportation allowance decree as a major bone of contention with Aoun’s bloc.
Nahhas, who has refused to sign the decree arguing that it should be made legal first by Parliament, hit back at Sleiman. “I will not sign [the decree] even if 29 ministers, and not only a two-third majority, agreed to dismiss me. Anyone who can dismiss me, let him try,” Nahhas told Al Jadeed TV Saturday.
Parliamentary sources said that as Mikati and Aoun stood firm on their conflicting attitudes over the civil service appointments issue, the only possible solution for the Cabinet crisis is through a draft law in Parliament that would legitimize the transportation allowance and thus remove the labor minister’s excuse for not signing the decree. This solution would also satisfy Sleiman and Mikati who have been demanding the implementation of the decisions taken by the Cabinet, the sources said.
They added that such a solution would take at least two weeks to materialize after which contacts or serious mediation effort s would begin to resolve the inter-Christian differences over administrative appointments and other sticking issues.
The possibility of launching the Cabinet’s productivity requires a change in Mikati’s approach toward the administrative appointments and other issues and his decisions should not emanate from nervousness that puts him in an impasse as happened with his recent decision to suspend the sessions, the sources said. They added that Mikati should play the role of a judge among the Cabinet members because Sleiman, in the eyes of many, has become a party to inter-Christian differences.
Aoun has repeatedly accused Sleiman of backing his political opponents in and outside the government.
The same sources said that Mikati’s constitutional partner, Sleiman, cannot secure a political cover to reconvene the Cabinet as the prime minister hopes.
On the contrary, Sleiman’s stance, especially his statement that a solution for the Cabinet crisis could either be with the dismissal of the labor minister – this is impossible because it does not have the consent of two thirds of ministers – or by changing his portfolio, which is constitutionally possible in agreement with the prime minister but politically impossible since there is no consensus on it in the Cabinet.