Higher Shiite Council Urges Calm, Ozyildiz has ‘No Comment’ on Identification of Pilgrims’ Kidnappers

The Higher Islamic Shiite Council urged on Thursday the families of 11 pilgrims kidnapped in Syria to exercise self-restraint and remain calm.

Following a meeting held between the deputy head of the Council, Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, and the families of the abductees, a statement urged Turkey to intensify its efforts to release the men.

The families “should maintain calm and the Turkish government should resolve the case as soon as possible,” the statement said.

Their meeting came after the wives and daughters of the abductees identified two of the kidnappers on Tuesday after seeing them in a report about the rebel Free Syrian Army on television.

LBCI reported that several women, part of the group of pilgrims kidnapped in the Syrian province of Aleppo and released without their male relatives, contacted it after seeing the kidnappers’ faces on a Monday broadcast.

The report featured men who identified themselves as members of the FSA.

The Turkish Ambassador, Inan Ozyildiz, visited the Grand Serail on Wednesday to participate in the celebration of the National Institute for Scientific Research’s golden jubilee.

Asked by the reporter of Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) about the identification of the kidnappers on TV, he said: “No comment.”

Ozyildiz also told VDL that there were no new developments in the negotiations aimed at securing the release of the abductees.

LBCI said that Qabalan summoned the Turkish ambassador over the identification of the kidnappers.

It added that Turkish authorities asked Prime Minister Najib Miqati to maintain calm after the families of the victims threatened to take escalatory measures on Tuesday.

Miqati issued a decree last week at the behest of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council temporarily banning pilgrims from traveling by land to holy sites outside Lebanon.