diff --git a/mailnews/news/src/Makefile.in b/mailnews/news/src/Makefile.in
index 701671da48a3..22d60d4d9c94 100644
--- a/mailnews/news/src/Makefile.in
+++ b/mailnews/news/src/Makefile.in
@@ -58,5 +58,10 @@ EXTRA_DSO_LDOPTS =	\
 
 include $(topsrcdir)/config/config.mk
 
-include $(topsrcdir)/config/rules.mk
+MKSHLIB :=
 
+# we don't want the shared lib, but we want to force the creation of a static lib.
+override NO_SHARED_LIB=1
+override NO_STATIC_LIB=
+
+include $(topsrcdir)/config/rules.mk