What Will it Take for Aoun to Approve Funding the STL ?

Here is one of the “solutions” proposed for solving the STL funding dilemma of the Mikati cabinet:

[The cabinet should fulfill] one or two of the items that Aoun has set as conditions for his continued participation in the Cabinet in return for his ministers’ support for funding, or at least their refraining from opposing the move in the Cabinet […]

These demands are: providing the Lebanese Army with more advanced weaponry, adjusting salaries, passing the draft budget on time, moving forward with development projects, appointing civil servants and tackling the issue of the state’s public finance account.

Notice that each of those demands involves spending amounts much higher than the $30 million required to fund the Tribunal. Aoun, as usual, is playing hardball because he knows he’s in a strong position. People accuse Aoun of being crazy, but whether we like him or not, there is method to his madness: His tactic of combining blackmail, righteousness and bargaining gets results.