The 11 Lebanese pilgrims
kidnapped in Syria have been allowed on Wednesday to contact their loved ones
by telephone.
Al-Jadeed television
managed to get a film crew to the pilgrims’ location in Aazaz in Aleppo where
they were allowed to telephone their families.
The captives reassured
their families that they are doing well and that they were being well taken
care of.
One of them asked the
Lebanese people to demonstrate outside the Syrian embassy in Beirut and block
the airport road to protest the failure to ensure their release.
Earlier on Wednesday,
acting Information Minister Wael Abou Faour stated that efforts are underway
between President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati to ensure
their release.
“They are aware of how
important this issue is,” he said after a cabinet session headed by the
premier.
“This ordeal must end
and the state is determined to do all it can to release them,” he stressed.
On Tuesday, the families
of pilgrims threatened that Turkish citizens would become “guests” in Lebanon
if Ankara does not make serious efforts to set the abductees free.
Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who
has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case,
told several TV stations that Lebanese authorities hadn’t done enough to
guarantee the release of the kidnapped pilgrims.
“We hope that we reach
the solution that everyone is after,” he said.
But he warned that “the
families will do what is necessary” after saying that Turkey and Qatar should
pressure the abductors to “end the tragedy.”
Later on Tuesday, the
pilgrims appeared in good health after an LBC news team was able to interview
them, but the men lashed out at the government for not doing enough to set them
free.
“I won’t urge our state
because I don’t consider myself that I have a state and I am no longer proud of
being Lebanese,” said one of the pilgrims Abbas Shoaib.
“I make an appeal to the
Saudi King, Qatar and (Turkish PM) Erdogan to back the Syrian revolution” and
resolve our case “so that we return back to our families.”http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/49355
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