The Daily Star - Charbel optimistic over progress in securing pilgrims’ release, August 24 2012

BEIRUT: Interior Minister Marwan Charbel voiced optimism Thursday over the progress of talks aimed at securing the release of the 11 Lebanese kidnapped in Syria, saying the state has been working relentlessly toward an end to the crisis.

Speaking to reporters at the Interior Ministry after meeting with the relatives of the hostages, Charbel said: “I am optimistic that there are serious contacts and that the issue is being looked into seriously.”

He added that the Lebanese state has not once abandoned the case over the past three months, emphasizing that the government has been speaking with Turkish officials away from the media to ensure smooth negotiations.

“The Lebanese state will never abandon the case of any kidnapped Lebanese,” he said.

The 11 Shiite Lebanese were kidnapped by rebels on May 22 shortly after crossing from Turkey to Syria, returning from a pilgrimage to Iran.

Charbel was in Ankara last week to follow up on the case as part of the emergency ministerial committee’s efforts to investigate the fate of the pilgrims.

Turkey’s ambassador to Lebanon, Inan Ozyildiz, said Thursday he expected positive developments to surface particularly following Charbel’s visit to Turkey.

“[Turkey considers] Lebanon’s stability as one of its priorities and expects positive signs to emerge in the case of the kidnapped Lebanese after the visit by Minister Charbel,” Ozyildiz told reporters after meeting with Lebanese Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali Fadlallah.

He added that his country did not wish to see the abductions in Syria and Lebanon exacerbate sectarian tensions.

Reports surfaced earlier this month that four of the pilgrims had been killed in an airstrike by the Syrian army in the Aleppo district of Azaz where they were being held by Syrian rebels.

However, French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius said Saturday that all 11 Lebanese were alive and well.

During his chat with reporters, a relative of one of the kidnapped accused Charbel of taking the case seriously only after the abduction of two Turkish nationals in Lebanon last week.

Charbel denied the allegation and said the government had been working tirelessly on the case.

“The case of the kidnapped is difficult because it involves a political element,” he said.

The minister also added that Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Oqab Sakr, who has been out the country for over a year, have been working to secure the release of the kidnapped.

The Meqdad clan, which is holding more than 20 Syrians in Lebanon captive in a bid to swap them for its own kidnapped relative in Damascus, said it would wait for the outcome of the Cabinet’s crisis committee before taking further action.

“At the behest of prominent political and spiritual officials, especially the crisis committee formed by the Cabinet, and [in a bid] to maintain civil peace ... the Meqdad family announces a wait-and-see approach, regarding the outcome of the crisis committee,” the clan said in statement.

The Meqdad clan kidnapped the Syrians in retaliation for the mid-August abduction of kinsman Hasan Meqdad in Damascus.

The family is also holding Turkish businessman Aydin Tufan Tekin.

Tekin was snatched upon arrival in Beirut on Aug. 15 to pressure Turkey to help ensure Meqdad’s release.

Another Turkish citizen, Abdulbasit Arslan, was kidnapped on Aug. 17, but the Meqdad family has denied involvement in his abduction.

The clan has accused the rebel Free Syrian Army of Hassan Meqdad’s abduction, but FSA commander Riad al-Asaad has denied that the FSA is holding him.

“This is one of the regime’s games to create strife and instability in Lebanon,” Asaad said in remarks published Tuesday by Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai.

Commenting on the FSA’s statement, a Turkish official told The Daily Star that “the ball was now firmly in the Meqdad family’s court after the FSA denied involvement in the kidnapping.”

Maher Meqdad, the clan’s spokesperson, told The Daily Star Thursday that the ongoing negotiations between Lebanese and Turkish officials were not restricted to the fate of the 11 pilgrims and included Hasan Meqdad.

“Officials asked us to give them some time to work on resolving this issue. We are confident that the issue is being tackled seriously by Minister Charbel and we are thankful for the role he is playing,” he said.

Separately, a shootout broke out Wednesday evening in south Beirut between members of the Meqdad and Zeaiter clans following an argument.

Security sources told The Daily Star Thursday that the shootout at an amusement park in Kafaat, south of Beirut, erupted over a dispute between a Zeaiter man and a woman from the Meqdad family.

They said the fight quickly turned violent when several members of the Meqdad clan showed up armed in support of the woman.

Gunshots were heard across Kafaat. Security sources could not determine whether there were any casualties.

Meanwhile, U.N. official Robert Watkins said Thursday all sides in Lebanon should not overstep the authority of state institutions, and that the latter should not allow the presence of actors who take the law into their own hands.

“We believe the Lebanese state has an important role to play in ensuring that stability is preserved, while all sides in the country should respect and not overstep the country’s state institutions,” the U.N. special coordinator in Lebanon told reporters after meeting Charbel.

He also said that repeated security breaches undermine efforts by many in Lebanon to promote peace, stability and long-term development.

“Lebanon cannot accept that there are actors who take the law into their own hands with impunity. We support the statements by the Lebanese president and prime minister to bring those guilty of crimes to justice,” he said.

“I also agreed with Minister Charbel that the Lebanese state has a moral responsibility to protect innocent people, including Syrian nationals, many of whom are here as refugees seeking shelter from the violence in their own country,” Watkins said.

President Michel Sleiman has asked the judiciary to issue warrants against kidnappers of Syrian nationals.

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