Qatari Negotiator Meets Nusra Front Leader to Seal Deal over Servicemen Fate
A Qatari-appointed mediator reportedly met recently with al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front senior official to put the final touches on a deal to release the servicemen in the group's captivity since August last year.
The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat newspaper reported on Tuesday that the unnamed Qatari mediator, who was recently in Istanbul, met with the head of al-Nura Front in Syria to set a “logistic formula to start implementing an agreement” with the Lebanese state.
The daily said the families of abducted soldiers and policemen expressed relief over the development.
Last week, the captive servicemen taken hostage by al-Nusra Front warned via a video tape released by the group that they will be executed if Syria's Qalamoun front was waged.
“If the Lebanese army and Hizbullah were dragged into a battle in Qalamoun, we will be the ones to pay the price,” one of the soldiers said, accusing General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim of “lying to the families of the servicemen.”
However, Ibrahim slammed the accusations, noting that mediators are “racing time” to secure a swap deal to free the Lebanese servicemen, amid concerns that military developments in Syria's Qalamoun region might affect their fate.
The relatives of the servicemen taken hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) revealed that negotiations resumed with the group as Ibrahim stressed that efforts are underway to increase the pace of talks, al-Hayat reported.
A number of soldiers and policemen were abducted by al-Nusra Front and ISIL gunmen in the wake of clashes in the northeastern border town of Arsal.
A few of them have since been released, four were executed, and the rest remain held.
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