Berri, Jumblat Criticize Performance of Arsal Hostages Committee

Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat have expressed anger at the performance of a committee tasked with resolving the crisis of Lebanese hostages.

The meetings of the committee, which is made up of ministers and security officials, haven't made progress, Berri told his visitors.

He said in remarks published on Monday that the committee is facing a crisis.

His remarks came as Qatar announced that it was ending its mediation in the efforts aimed at releasing Lebanese soldiers and policemen taken hostage by al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group from the northeastern border town of Arsal last August.

The committee said in a terse statement after an emergency meeting on Saturday that it took necessary decisions and reiterated that the government and the people were united in the fight to release the servicemen.

But Berri stressed that the involvement of several intermediaries complicated the crisis.

“The concerned officials should agree on one security figure to manage the negotiations in coordination with Prime Minister” Tammam Salam, said Berri.

“Before awaiting for Qatar to help us, we should first help ourselves and rely on our sources of strength in order to use them in the right direction to secure the release of the soldiers,” he said.

Jumblat made similar remarks, saying: “I am so far remaining silent because my priority is to save the hostages and release them.”

“But I will say what I have at the appropriate time if things don't change,” he warned.

He described the meetings of the committee as “chaotic.”

The PSP chief told As Safir that the Lebanese authorities should swiftly engage in a prisoner swap.

“We could still save lives,” he said.

The al-Qaida-linked a-Nusra Front announced Friday that it killed Ali Bazzal, a Lebanese policeman it was holding captive, as retaliation for the Lebanese government's detention of the wives and children of militants.

IS has already beheaded two, and the Nusra Front shot dead a third. Bazzal would be the fourth captive soldier to die.

Lebanese authorities have arrested a divorcee and child of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. They also arrested the wife and two children of another Sunni militant commander in Syria, Abu Ali al-Shishani.

Other than their call for the release of women and children, the jihadist groups have demanded the Lebanese authorities to set free Islamist inmates from Roumieh prison in return for the so-called Arsal captives.