HERMEL, Lebanon, 24 August 2003 — The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said yesterday progress was being on the issue of prisoner exchanges with Israel through recently resumed mediation efforts.
“I assure you that this issue is making big steps forward and that it will be solved soon,” Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in this eastern Lebanese town in a speech to inaugurate a new hospital run by his movement. He did not elaborate on the issue.
Hezbollah is reportedly holding four Israelis, three of them soldiers, while Israel is holding around 20 Lebanese, including two senior Hezbollah figures.
Meanwhile, member of the Palestinian Parliament Dr. Saeb Erekat, warned against the deterioration of the status in the occupied territories if Israel continues its policy of assassinations, settlements and the comprehensive war against Palestinians. Erekat, after receiving US envoy John Wolf, who is assigned by President Bush to monitor the progress of the road map, said Israel had made a mistake when it published pictures of the Palestinian factions’ leaders on playing cards.
“It was like pouring oil on fire,” he said.
