Little progress has been made in talks with Hizbullah over two Israeli soldiers whose capture by the Lebanese movement exactly a year ago triggered the Lebanon war, the U.N.'s Middle East envoy said on Thursday. "I'm distressed as we mark that anniversary that we have not been able to make substantial progress," Michael Williams told Reuters.
"We continue to talk to Hizbullah about it. But I regret that not only have we been unable to expedite the release of the two soldiers, but we have not been able to obtain proof of life," he noted.
Soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were captured in a cross-border Hizbullah raid on July 12, 2006, triggering a 34-day war in which 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.
Hizbullah has dismissed a United Nations call for the immediate release of the two troops and said Israel must first free Lebanese prisoners and possibly others held in its jails.
