Mashnouq: al-Dulaimi and Sharkas, Negotiation Cards to Free Soldiers

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stated angrily on Saturday that the media outlets made a huge mistake when they leaked the names of the latest army arrests of the wives of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and IS official Anas Sharkas.

“Leaking the names has deeply harmed and complicated the thorny file of the abducted Lebanese servicemen,” Mashnouq stressed to the al-Akhbar daily.

The Minister emphasized that he would have preferred to send messages to the terrorists, that Saja al-Dulaimi, Baghdadi's divorcee, and Alaa al-Oqaili, the wife of Sharkas are under strict security supervision, which could have been a strong negotiation card to free the soldiers.

To a question, Mashnouq said: “although announcing the arrest in media outlets was a mistake, but there is no decision to free the two women because they will be part in the negotiation process. Otherwise we would not have arrested them in the first place.”

Lebanese soldiers and policemen were taken captive in August when militants from the extremist Islamic State group and al-Nusra Front infiltrated the northeastern town of Arsal from Syria and engaged in bloody clashes with troops. Three of them have been so far executed as al-Nusra Front announced on Friday the execution of another soldier Ali al-Bazzal.

The Minister stressed that the abducted soldiers must be released all together because a gradual release would create further problems with families of the servicemen and with the kidnappers.

“A gradual release of soldiers might create two problems, the first with the families who could object to the order of selecting the names, and with the kidnappers whom we have no full trust that they would fulfill their obligations.”

Media outlets leaked on Tuesday information on the detention of Saja al-Dulaimi at a checkpoint on al-Madfoun Bridge in the North. The arrest took place last month and was kept a secret until the media put it out to public.

Alaa al-Oqaili was arrested two months after her surveillance. She was apprehended along with her brother Rakan in the Zgharta area of Hilan in northern Lebanon at a public school hosting Syrian refugees.

In retaliation to the arrest, Sharkas, aka Abu Ali al-Shishani, threatened to start kidnapping the wives and children of soldiers until the Lebanese authorities release his spouse and two kids, announcing the suspension of negotiations in the case of the abducted servicemen.

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