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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Hizbullah officials: "Samir Kuntar's release will happen very soon" |
| 2007-01-06 |
| Hizbullah officials recently made surprising promises to the family members of Lebanese prisoner, Samir Kuntar, according to which he would be released from Israeli prison "very soon". In the past, Hizbullah regarded releasing Kuntar as an obligatory precondition for any future prisoner exchange deal with Israel. The militia's chief also declared that if Kuntar would not be released Hizbullah would not negotiate any exchange whatsoever. A Hizbullah delegation recently met Kuntar's family in the city of Abiya. The Lebanese Sheikh who came with the envoy, Sheikh Atalla Hamoud, told Kuntar's family that his release would happen very soon. "Your meeting with us is at hand," he turned to Kuntar in the meeting with his family members. During the meeting Kuntar's brother, Bassam, who in recent years has been leading the campaign to release his brother, thanked the Lebanese prisoners captured during the recent Lebanon War and the "Shahids who defeated the enemy." Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said many times in the past that releasing Kuntar is one of his top priorities. Last April Nasrallah made a speech in which he promised to continue resistance to Israel and Jihad actions until Kuntar's release. "You will return by the force of the resistance's guns, the resistance's blood and the resistance's actions. I want to promise you and your brothers that when we practice Jihad we rely on our right to release our prisoners by any means possible," Nasrallah said. After the kidnapping of the two IDF soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, in July 2006, Nasrallah held a press conference in which he repeated his commitment to release Kuntar in a prisoner exchange deal with Israel. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Got Polonium? |
| Posted by: ed 2007-01-06 21:52 |
| #1 Return him in pieces. Via catapult. |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-01-06 14:31 |