Report: Qatari Mediator to Head to Arsal for Further Negotiations
A Qatari-appointed mediator will head to the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal this week to resume negotiations with the kidnappers of Lebanese servicemen, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.
Sources told the daily that the unnamed mediator will discuss with the abductors their demands and the list of detainees held in Lebanese prisons to be included in a prisoners swap deal.
Concerned sources told al-Liwaa that the course of negotiations is ongoing and didn't halt, describing it as delicate.
“We need time and exert further efforts to end the case,” the sources noted.
A number of soldiers and policemen were abducted by al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gunmen in the wake of clashes in Arsal in August.
A few of them have since been released, four were executed, and the rest remain held.
The captors have been demanding the release of Islamists held in Lebanon as a condition to set them free.
Media reports said recently that al-Nusra Front handed over to the Qatari mediator a list of its demands in return for the release of the Lebanese soldiers and policemen in its captivity.
H.K.
G.K.
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