The Daily Star - Turkey to keep up efforts to secure hostages’ release, June 1 2012

BEIRUT: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday his country would continue “intensive efforts” aimed at securing the release of 11 Lebanese taken hostage by Syrian rebels last week.

Erdogan’s comments came following a second meeting in Istanbul with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who urged his Turkish counterpart to accelerate Ankara’s efforts to resolve the hostage crisis.

“Mr. Erdogan said Turkey will continue exerting intensive efforts aimed at saving the Lebanese nationals who are currently [held] in Syria,” said a joint statement issued after the meeting. The statement was released by Mikati’s media office Thursday night.

For his part, Mikati called for a quick solution for the hostage crisis, “urging Turkey to continue its praiseworthy efforts in this respect.”

Erdogan voiced Turkey’s interest in “Lebanon’s independence, sovereignty and political stability,” it added.

Mikati discussed the case of the hostages during meetings with Erdogan and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

In his meeting with Ban, Mikati “stressed the need for the use of all resources and means to secure the release of the abducted Lebanese as soon as possible in view of the sensitivity of the matter and its repercussions on stability in Lebanon,” said a statement released by Mikati’s media office.

The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

Mikati’s talks in Istanbul came as Syrian rebels in Aleppo province said in a statement the Lebanese hostages were with them and “are in good health,” the Al-Jazeera news channel reported Thursday. They also said negotiations to release them could start only after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, apologized for a speech in which he condemned the kidnapping and said it would not change his party’s stance on the crisis in Syria.Mikati arrived in Istanbul Wednesday for talks with senior Turkish officials on the case of the hostages and to attend the Alliance of Civilizations Partners Forum.

He met Ban on the sidelines of the forum, which was also attended by Erdogan and a host of Arab and international figures. Mikati met Erdogan on the sidelines of the forum before holding another meeting Thursday night to discuss the hostage crisis.

Mikati and Ban discussed the situation in Lebanon and the region and the efforts made by the U.N. to end the 15-month-old conflict in Syria and also the results of the ongoing contacts to secure the release of the 11 hostages, the statement said.

The talks also touched on the situation in south Lebanon and the cooperation between the Lebanese Army and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, it added.

Turkey’s efforts to secure the release of the Lebanese hostages and Lebanese-Turkish relations were also discussed during Mikati’s meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the statement said.

Mikati also met separately with Brazil’s vice president, Lebanese-born Michel Tamer, Yemeni Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindawa, Bahrain’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Ali bin Khalifa al-Khalifa, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah and the secretary-general of the Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

In these meetings, Mikati explained the situation in Lebanon in the light of the ongoing developments around it and the government’s policy to try to maintain stability in Lebanon and insulate it from the repercussions of the crisis in Syria, the statement said. Since the popular uprising began in Syria in March last year, the Mikati government has adopted a policy to dissociate Lebanon from the reverberations of the conflict next door.

At Erdogan’s request, Mikati addressed the Civilizations Partners Forum, highlighting Lebanon’s experience of sectarian coexistence. “I am happy because my presence in Turkey coincided with the convening of this conference and premier Erdogan insisted that I deliver a speech. I am sure he [Erdogan] is convinced that my country Lebanon represents a model of the meeting of civilizations,” he said.

“Since we are today calling on the international community to always be on our side and to maintain this model in the world, we see that this meeting provides an opportunity for more rapprochement and coexistence,” he added.

Mikati said Lebanon’s coexistence experience is unique in the region and in the world, noting that over 20 sects and communities live together in the country.

“In our country, the minarets’ prayer call intermingles with the tolling of churches’ bells in an important embodiment of coexistence,” Mikati said. He called on the participants to help preserve Lebanon’s model of coexistence and to hold the next forum in Lebanon.

The pilgrims, who were returning to Lebanon along with their families from a trip to Iran, were kidnapped by Syrian rebels last week in the Aleppo region. Women and elderly men were set free to return to Lebanon shortly after.

But since then there have been conflicting reports on the whereabouts and health of the 11 hostages, but none of these has been confirmed.

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