BEIRUT, 18 November 2003 — Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance group said yesterday it had held a new round of talks with German mediators to resolve “sticking points” in a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.
The swap has been under on-again-off-again indirect negotiation for three years. It appeared under threat last week when Israel ruled out releasing Samir Al-Qantar, a Lebanese involved in a guerrilla attack on Israelis. Hezbollah demands that Qantar be part of any exchange.
“A new round of negotiations took place between Hezbollah and the German mediator in an attempt to resolve the sticking points,” Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a brief statement. “Both sides agreed to keep details of the negotiations secret at this delicate stage in order to secure a better climate to reach a positive final outcome,” he said.
The broad outlines of the swap, narrowly approved by Israel’s Cabinet on Nov. 9, include trading all Lebanese detainees, some 400 Palestinians and other Arab prisoners in Israel for Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, abducted by Hezbollah in 2000, and three kidnapped Israeli soldiers now thought dead.
Qantar, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Front, was captured by the Israelis in 1979 after an attack on an Israeli settlement which left two Israelis dead. Nasrallah said Israel had reneged on previous agreements by excluding Qantar.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas dismissed Sunday recent military exercises carried out by Israel on its borders with Lebanon and Syria as a “media” ploy.
Israeli exercises “are not important,” charged Hezbollah No. 2, Sheikh Naim Qassem, during a speech in Beirut to mark 33 years since deceased Syrian President Hafez Assad swept to power in Damascus. “If they are readying real preparations, then we will stand firm,” he vowed.
The Israeli Army said Thursday that it had this week started large-scale exercises near the Jewish state’s border with Lebanon and the cease-fire line with Syria, ahead of a possible “military escalation on the northern front”.
An Israeli military spokesman said the routine exercise was a warning to Syria and Hezbollah. Hamas political leader, Khaled Meshaal, added that Israel, bogged down by continuing violence in the Palestinian territories, was therefore incapable of posing a threat to Syria and Lebanon.
Meshaal said Damascus had “absorbed” Israel’s first airstrike in 30 years on Syria, launched Oct. 5 just outside the capital. “Syria has absorbed this raid ... by increasing its sponsorship of the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance,” he said.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Yaalon has hinted that more action could be directed against Syria if it “ignores the message” of last month’s airstrike near Damascus, Israeli public radio reported yesterday.
“If Syria continues to ignore the messages that Israel and other countries have sent it, it may be necessary to send further messages of a different nature,” Yaalon was quoted as saying during a speech at Tel Aviv University on Sunday.
