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Anorak News | Hezbollah Talk Of Israeli Captives And Humanitarian Matters

Hezbollah Talk Of Israeli Captives And Humanitarian Matters

by | 23rd, July 2007

IF this were in the UK, what would we do to the kidnappers?

DUBAI (Reuters) – The chief of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah said his organisation did not tell France that the two Israeli soldiers it captured in 2006 were alive and declined to give any clues to their fate.
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“This is not true,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television in an interview aired on Monday, when asked about Hezbollah envoys’ “confirmation” to France earlier this month that the two men were alive.

Hezbollah’s seizure of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006, resulted in a 34-day war between the Iranian-backed group and Israel in which about 1,200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis were killed.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on July 15 that he “understood” the soldiers were alive after discussing the issue with Hezbollah envoys during talks with Lebanese political leaders in the French capital.

“I understood yes. As I really understood, yes,” Kouchner said then, when asked by an Israeli reporter if they were alive.

Nasrallah said he was the only Hezbollah official who could answer questions about the fate of the soldiers.

“The minister (Kouchner) is clever … he said ‘I understood’,” said Nasrallah. “The brothers (envoys) do not answer this type of questions,” he said, adding that he was the only person entitled to give any information on the subject.

“Any piece of information, word or indication can yield an important result on a humanitarian level (such as the release) of a detainee… why should we give it for free,” he said.



Posted: 23rd, July 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink