BEIRUT:
Negotiations intensified Monday in a bid to secure the release of 11 Lebanese
hostages held by Syrian rebels, a political source told The Daily Star, as
Lebanon called on the Arab League to take part in efforts to free them.
“Negotiations
between mediators and captors have intensified and the outcome will be clear
within 48 hours,” said the source.
For
his part, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour telephoned Arab League
Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby and asked for the League to step in to secure
the release of the pilgrims.
Mansour
also received Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi, who conveyed Iranian
officials’ condemnations of the kidnapping by “an armed terrorist group” of the
Lebanese pilgrims, as well as three Iranian truck drivers who were taken the
same day.
“We
launched intensive contacts with various officials in the region from the moment
we were informed of the kidnapping of the Iranians and Lebanese,” Roknabadi
told reporters after meeting Mansour.
“These
contacts ... are ongoing and we hope for the release of these Iranian and
Lebanese brothers as soon as possible and the Islamic Republic is contacting
Turkey over this matter,” the diplomat added.
The
11 male pilgrims were kidnapped in the Syrian province of Aleppo last Tuesday
shortly after crossing the border from Turkey. Their release had been scheduled
for Friday, according to Turkish officials, but for reasons that are still
unknown, they are still held captive. A day later, three Lebanese pilgrims were
killed and several others wounded in Iraq in a bomb blast targeting their bus.
Prime
Minister Najib Mikati issued a directive Monday temporarily banning overland
pilgrimages in light of the attacks. Pilgrims may now travel only by air. The
committee of Hajj and Umrah affairs was tasked with coordinating with relevant
groups to ensure the implementation of the decision, the statement added.
Sheikh
Ibrahim Zoabi, head of the Party of Free Syrians, said the party had stopped
mediating the release of the Lebanese hostages for several reasons, including
the “negative” way the Lebanese Cabinet was handling the matter.
“There
are so many negotiators and people contacting individuals who are in contact
with the kidnappers,” Zoabi told MTV. “They are making lots of financial and
political offers [to the kidnappers] and the Lebanese Cabinet is ignoring our
[mediating] role.”
Zoabi
said the identity of the group holding the hostages is known to Lebanese and
Turkish officials. “This group has nothing to do with Islamists,” he added.
Meanwhile
Nabil Halabi, head of the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights,
told a local radio station Monday evening that the hostages were in Turkey.
He
said he had received a photo of one of the kidnapped sitting on a cement bench,
blindfolded but in apparent good health. He added that the authenticity of the
photo had to be determined before it could be published.
The
activist said the biggest obstacle hindering the pilgrims release was the
kidnappers’ interest in hostage Abbas Shuaib, whom they maintain is a member of
Hezbollah.
Halabi
also said that the captors were not part of any of the Syrian opposition
groups.
Separately,
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt called for the release of the
hostages. “I condemn acts of kidnapping and retaliatory kidnapping from any
side and I call for handing over the kidnapped and restoring calm,” Jumblatt wrote
in his weekly editorial at PSP’s Al-Anbaa newspaper.
The
Chouf MP called on the Lebanese and relatives of the kidnapped not to “be
dragged into violence or retaliatory acts which could have negative
repercussions that spin things out of control and serve the [Syrian] regime in
the end.”
Sheikh
Mohammad Yazbek, a member of Hezbollah’s Shura council, said there were many
questions lingering over the abduction. “Why did the kidnapping take place? Is
this for the sake of reform and freedom? Were these pilgrims fighting?” asked
Yazbek in a memorial ceremony in Baalbek. “Why did Turkey and Saudi Arabia step
in to secure the release of the kidnapped and we thanked them for that and
where are they now? There are missing links and ambiguity.”
Beirut
MP Ammar Houri, from the Future Movement, said the issue of the kidnapped is
“national par excellence.” “It concerns all the Lebanese with their various
sects and political affiliations,” Houri told Al-Jadeed TV.
The
lawmaker said that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is still pursuing contacts
to ensure that the kidnapping ends with the safe return of the pilgrims. “But
he is not negotiating the kidnappers and there is no contact with them.”
Similarly, the Kataeb
(Phalange) Party called for addressing the abduction as a“national and
humanitarian,” rather than sectarian one.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/May-29/174957-mediators-step-up-efforts-to-free-hostages.ashx#axzz1wFjVYzRg
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