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Mofaz: Israel will not release Barghouti in prisoner swap
JPost Reg ReqâdDefense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that Israel does not intend to release jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti under a prsioner swap with the Hezbollah guerillah group.
"weâre not sure which weâre done with yet" "We have no intention of releasing Barghouti," Mofaz added. "him, weâre certainly not done with"Separately, President Moshe Katsav said the country is willing "to pay any price" to secure the release of long-missing IAF navigator Ron Arad. If this poor guy is alive heâs gotta be a mess "Regardless of the current negotiations with Hizbullah, Israel will continue to work for the release of Ron Arad, and he will remain an issue for all Israelis until he comes home," Katsav told reporters Tuesday morning. The government has reportedly agreed to release 400 Arab prisoners, half of them Palestinians, as part of a deal with Hizbullah in exchange for the return of businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three missing soldiers. Also Tuesday, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said that it does not seem probable that Barghouti will be released in a prisoner swap deal with the Hizbullah. He must be the bait for Arad The details were revealed in a news agency report on Monday, as Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah pledged that the organization would "exert its utmost efforts" to obtain information about the fate of missing IAF navigator Lt.-Col. Ron Arad, whose plane went down over Lebanon 17 years ago. A Palestinian source, close to the talks, said negotiators agreed in principle on a list of 400 Arab prisoners to be released by Israel, including more than 200 Palestinians as well as Syrians, Jordanians and Lebanese. According to a report in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, the head of the Israeli negotiating team left for Berlin on Sunday and met with German mediator Ernest Uhrlau in an effort to complete the final details of the agreement. Al-Quds quoted Israeli sources as saying that negotiations are likely to be concluded in a matter of days. The report quoted a senior PA source, allegedly close to the deal, as saying that West Bank Fatah leader Barghouti tops the list of Palestinians that Hizbullah is seeking to free, although negotiations are continuing over the names. The PA source also maintained that as part of the negotiations, Hizbullah had asked Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and even Arafatâs mainstream Fatah organization to formulate lists of those detainees they would like to see released. Barghouti tops all three lists. Barghouti is increasingly seen as a possible successor to Arafat, and his popularity has been boosted by more than a year spent in jail.
why is Nasrallah alive? Iranian buttboy should be dead yesterday "We have a lot of motivation and reasons to look into Aradâs fate," he was quoted as saying. An English-language account of the interview was carried on the Jordanian Web site albawaba.com. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said on Monday he will raise the issue of Arad with a grandson of Iranâs late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at an interfaith meeting soon. Metzgerâs meeting is in Kazakhstan. Observers here, however, maintained that the PA has not been involved in the negotiations and that the inclusion of Barghouti in any proposed deal represents, for now at least, wishful thinking. Nasrallah said Hizbullah recently allowed a German mediator to see Tannenbaum to make sure he is alive and well and to carry a written letter from the retired IDF colonel to his relatives. In exchange, the government allowed the mediator to visit Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani two Lebanese leaders it snatched in the late 1980s and early 1990s in order to win the release of Arad in prison and carry letters from them to their families in Lebanon, Nasrallah was quoted as saying. Posted by: Frank G 2003-09-23 |
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