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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Israel: Nasrallah playing mind-games |
| 2004-08-21 |
| Aug. 21st, 2004 10:14 | Updated Aug. 21st, 2004 23:09 JPOST Israeli security officials on Saturday refused to comment to statements made Friday by Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to the effect that Israel-Hizbullah prisoner exchange negotiations have resumed. The Israeli officials said that Nasrallah's comments were part of his psychological warfare campaign, Army Radio reported. Before the return of three IDF soldiers kidnapped and killed by the Hizbullah three years ago, Nasrallah repeatedly played to the emotions of the soldiers' parents, alluding to the possibility that their sons were alive. In the past months, Hizbullah sent bone fragments to Israel, via German mediators, which the Lebanese terrorist group said were the remains of Ron Arad. Tests proved the fragments were not. Nasrallah — in a speech delivered in Beirut and qcarried by Hizbullah's al-Manar television channel — said that the German mediator Ernst Urhlau has returned to Lebanon and resumed efforts to restart the talks. Nasrallah did not go into further details saying it might hinder the talks. "I confirm on this occasion that negotiations are still going on with the German mediator ... but there is a pledge by both sides not to speak in detail about what is going on so that we don't fall into complications," Nasrallah said during a wake in Beirut for the brother of a Hezbollah official. Urhlau suspended talks in July due to media leaks he said were jeopardizing the talks. He said he would only resume his mediation if both sides unequivocally refrain from leaking unfounded news items to the media. "I tell Palestinian prisoners and Samir Kantar and all prisoners in Israeli jails you are and you will remain Hizbullah's cause in all fields until we reach the opportunity of relief and liberation," the black-turbaned 'cleric' said. The first stage of a prisoner swap deal between Hizbullah and Israel was effected in January when 400 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners were released in exchange for kidnapped Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers, captured in October 2000. In the framework of the second phase, Israel is to release Haran family murderer Samir Kuntar in return for information on missing Israeli airman Ron Arad. With Associated Press |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |