When Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, made a surprise announcement last week and said he had transferred Lebanon’s share of the annual budget for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) he averted a crisis.

By Daisy Mohr, Beirut

“The dangers facing Lebanon required a courageous decision,” Mikati said, referring to mounting international pressure to pay or otherwise face serious implications. “I don’t want to be head of a government that fails to honour its international obligations and pulls the country out of the Arab and international community.”

Mikati, a billionaire Sunni businessman with excellent relations abroad, had threatened to resign should his Hezbollah-dominated government refuse to transfer the 24 million euros to the STL. The funds were taken from the High Relief Council (HRC), which is under the auspices of the prime minister’s office and does not need cabinet approval.

Several politicians immediately questioned the legality of Mikati’s move. The HRC, set up to assist national disasters, is legally structured to spend money quickly without the bureaucratic procedures that constrain other government bodies.

One day after Mikati’s announcement, Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, addressed his followers in a televised speech. His mission was to explain why his party had sat by as the funds were transferred. “Had the cabinet or parliament convened on the STL funding, we would have voted against financing it,” Nasrallah said.

“Publicly they have to say they rejected this, but behind the scenes there was an understanding the transfer would go ahead,” says Nicholas Blanford, author of a book about Hariri’s assassination and another about Hezbollah. “This doesn’t mean Hezbollah suddenly supports the tribunal, but they weren’t prepared to go to war over this. If Lebanon wouldn’t have financed it, other sources certainly would have,”

The Shiite Hezbollah and its allies have repeatedly denounced the court as part of a US-Israeli conspiracy and have urged Lebanon to cut all ties with the institution. Hezbollah, the most powerful military force in the country, toppled the previous government headed by Saad Hariri earlier this year over its refusal to stop cooperation with the court.

Changing situation

“The situation in the region has changed, particularly in Syria, and that is the crux of the matter,” writes Tariq Alhomayed, editor-in-chief of the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat in reaction to Hezbollah’s silent acceptance of the funding. “Hezbollah might have accepted this because the Assad regime pressured it to do so, particularly as the Assad government would not under any condition accept the collapse of the only government that supports it,” Alhomayed continues, referring to Mikati’s government. “Hezbollah’s silence on the funding of the STL is because it is seeking to preserve something more important, namely the Assad regime, whose survival in turn guarantees the survival of Hezbollah.”

Mikati has now passed the first test of his commitment to international resolutions. He has been rewarded with international praise and was reportedly invited on a state visit to France. The U.S. also welcomed Mikati’s decision. US ambassador Maura Connelly noted that Lebanon’s commitments “extend beyond the issue of funding alone and fulfilling these commitments are important indicators of the government’s commitment to both Lebanon’s interests and its international obligations.”