Hizbollah: Prisoner Exchange to Cover all Arab Detainees in Israel

Published December 13th, 2000 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

By Nabil Al-Mulhem and AFP 

Albawaba.com-Damascus 

 

Lebanon's Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday that German mediation over an exchange of prisoners with Israel covers all Arab detainees in Israel, not just Lebanese prisoners, according to AFP. 

"It is not true that we have only called for (the release of) the 19 Lebanese jailed without trial in Israel. We consider ourselves to be concerned by any detainee held in enemy prisons, whether they are Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian or other," Nasrallah said. 

Hizbollah also demanded "the maps showing the location of the mines laid in southern Lebanon by Israel" before its May 24 withdrawal after 22 years of occupation, the leader said in a speech to several thousand people during a dinner at the end of the daily Ramadan fasting, said the agency. 

Hizbollah, which spearheaded the struggle against the Israeli occupation, has since October 7 been holding three Israeli soldiers captured on the border. 

The group also holds an agent of the Israeli secret service, Mossad, who is described by Israel as a 54-year-old businessman. 

Hizbollah says that Elhanan Tenenbaum is a reserve colonel and a senior Mossad official who was plotting anti-Hizbollah operations. 

On Tuesday, head of the movement Politburo, Mohammed Raed, denied that Hizbollah reached a final agreement with the Israelis. 

He told Albawaba.com in Damascus that Hizbollah accepted the German mediation over the exchange that "may include all the Arab detainees in Israeli jails, not only the Lebanese." 

Raed added that the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak would of course "take advantage of these negotiations in the electoral bazaar in Israel." 

"Hizbollah does not differentiate between Barak and any other prime minister," he said. 

a Palestinian senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, had told Albawaba.com that Hizbollah asked a committee comprising Hamas, Jihad and DFLP-GC to supply it with an authentic list of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. 

There are about 1600 Palestinians held by Israel, which also holds Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, key Shiite leaders. 

 

© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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