Lebanon's prime minister said Wednesday his country will pay its share of funds for a UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of a Lebanese statesman, averting a political crisis in the deeply divided country at a critical time in the Middle East. Najib Mikati said the transfer of Lebanon's $36 million share in the required funding for the Netherlands-based court was made Wednesday. “It is a decision that reflects Lebanon's commitment to its international obligations and the principles of justice,” he told reporters. The UN investigation into the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the degree to which the Lebanese authorities should cooperate with it, has become one of the most divisive issues in Lebanese politics in recent years. Hariri was killed by a suicide truck bomb on Feb. 14, 2005, in one of the most dramatic political assassinations in the Middle East.
