AMMAN: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has asked the Lebanese government to pay its dues to the special tribunal and the international community to shoulder its responsibilities, his media office said in a statement on Saturday.
The court based in the Netherlands on Thursday canceled the opening of a new trial of a convicted suspect that had been set for June 16 “due to lack of funds.”
“Due to the inability of the Lebanese state to fulfill its obligations in light of the stifling economic and financial crisis that our people are experiencing, and the failure of the international community to pay its dues, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) decided to stop the trial in the assassination cases of George Hawi, and the two former ministers Marwan Hamadeh and Elias Al-Murr, as well as other issues related to the trial of (former) prime minister Rafik Hariri and his companions,” Hariri said.
The STL, set up to try suspects in the 2005 killing of Hariri, said this week it risks closure by the end of July without a cash injection.
“We demand the Lebanese government pay the financial contribution it owes, we call on the international community to assume its responsibilities, and fulfill its obligations of these humanitarian issues of international justice,” the statement added.
Hariri said abandoning the special tribunal would mean abandoning justice and human rights and would encourage political assassination, impunity and the “establishment of the law of the jungle in a country like Lebanon that is drowning in a sea of crises.”
On Friday, Lebanon urged the UN to urgently consider “alternative means” to fund a UN-backed court on Rafik Hariri’s murder that may close over a cash crunch.
The STL is estimated to have cost between $600 million and $1 billion since it opened in 2009.
It draws 51 percent of its budget from donor countries and the rest from Lebanon, which is grappling with its deepest economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
The World Bank said this week that Lebanon’s financial downturn is likely to rank among the world’s worst since the mid-19th century.
“Based on our belief in justice and our conviction in freedom and democracy, we call on the Lebanese state to pay the financial contribution it owes and appeal to friendly countries to submit their financial obligations to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon because its work would put an end to political murders, establish the principle of non-impunity, promote a culture of justice, and defend human beings and their right to live,” Hariri said.
Rafik Hariri, who had stepped down as Lebanon’s prime minister in October 2004, was killed in a February 2005 suicide blast targeting his armored convoy.
The attack in Beirut also killed 21 other people and injured 226.
Born from a United Nations Security Council resolution, the STL last year sentenced Hezbollah suspect Salim Ayyash in absentia to life imprisonment over the 2005 truck bombing.
The tribunal was meant to begin next week another trial for Ayyash, who remains on the run, in a separate case over three attacks targeting Lebanese politicians between 2004 and 2005.
(With AFP)
Hariri asks Lebanese government to pay dues to special tribunal
https://arab.news/nuuyp
Hariri asks Lebanese government to pay dues to special tribunal
- The tribunal was set up to prosecute those behind the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
- Lebanon is under increasing danger of complete collapse on the back of an acute financial crisis
Iran temporarily closes airspace to most flights
WASHINGTON: Iran temporarily closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.
The prohibition is set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but could be extended, the notice said. The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic. India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.
Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.
The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries. Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week. “Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information.
“The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.” Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight.
Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement. Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.
