Lebanons caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab asked the UN secretary general in a letter on Friday to urgently explore ways of financing the Special Tribunal of Lebanon in light of funding difficulties. "The Government of Lebanon would be grateful to Your Excellency for urgently exploring different and alternative means of financing the Tribunal with the Security Council and Member States," the letter said. Judges at the STL have scrapped a new trial against the man convicted of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, because they expect the court to run out of money and be forced to shut down before it can finish. Last year the tribunal, located near The Hague, convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash, a former Hezbollah member, in absentia for the bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others on the Beirut seafront. That ruling is being appealed. A second case was meant to begin on June 16, prosecuting Ayyash for another assassination and other attacks on other Lebanese politicians in 2004-2005. But in a decision published Thursday on the courts website, the judges wrote they had cancelled the case, "considering it is futile to start a trial in June which is highly likely to be terminated in July due to lack of funds". Earlier this week the court announced it will have to close after July if it is unable to resolve its funding shortage. Lebanon is in the throes of a deep financial crisis that is threatening its stability. The crisis, which erupted in late 2019, has wiped out jobs, put more than half of the population under the poverty line and eroded about 90% of the value of the currency. "While we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the STL, we firmly believe that these financial difficulties should not hinder the completion of its work to the end," Diab said.