Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday succeeded in securing a cabinet majority to support the proposed prisoner exchange with the Lebanese-based Hizbullah movement.
Of the 23 members of the cabinet, 12 have voted in favor of the deal, which aims to secure the return of Israeli reserve colonel Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers, who were kidnapped from near the Israel-Lebanon border in October 2000. Israel is expected to free 20 Lebanese prisoners and some 400 Palestinians in exchange. The deal will include the Lebanese cleric, Sheikh Omar Karim Obeid and former Amal security chief Mustafa Dirani.
But even with the Israeli governmental approval of the deal, its future is threatened by Hizbullah's demand to free Samir Kuntar. Kuntar a Lebanese contracted by the PLO, killed three Israelis in the northern town of Nahariya in 1979. Israel has opposed the demand to include Kuntar in the deal.
On Sunday, Sharon told him ministers that cabinet support for the deal would save a living Israeli citizen, a reference to Tannenbaum.
The Beirut-based An-Nahar newspaper reported Sunday that the German team which has mediated the deal visited Beirut over the weekend to finalize details. The report said that the agreement between Israel and Hizbullah could be carried out Thursday, but only if both sides agree to the other's conditions.
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
