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Beirut 'ready for prisoner swap'
24/07/2006 09:42 - (SA)
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| An Israeli soldier walks past a fire near an artillery range after a Hezbollah rocket barrage struck the area near Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. (David Guttenfelder, AP) |
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Beirut - Lebanon's foreign minister says two captured Israeli soldiers are in "good health", and a leading politician says the Lebanese government is ready to lead negotiations over a prisoner swap with Israel through intermediaries.
"The prisoners are OK and in good health. I was basing it on what (Hezbollah leader Sheik) Hassan Nasrallah said," foreign minister Fawzi Salloukh told reporters after meeting a German foreign ministry official on Sunday.
"So let the United Nations or another friendly party come to Lebanon and start the negotiations (for a swap)."
Soon after their capture on July 12, Nasrallah had said the two soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26 - were in a safe location.
Israel launched its military blitz against Lebanon and Hezbollah following the soldiers' kidnapping.
Germany has brokered a prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah in the past, but Salloukh said the German official's visit was not linked to any new mediation.
He renewed Lebanon's call for a ceasefire before any prisoner swap negotiations began.
'Hezbollah would accept this'
"The point of the German delegate's visit is not to be an intermediary in negotiations. The negotiations start with a ceasefire and when the aggression stops," said Salloukh.
Israel has ruled out any prisoner swap, saying Hezbollah must release the two soldiers before a ceasefire is possible.
Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, proposed on Sunday that the Lebanese government lead negotiations with intermediaries on a prisoner swap between the group and Israel. He said Hezbollah would accept this.
"Israel, and in my opinion, the international community, have now (a chance for) an immediate ceasefire firstly, and at the same time starting negotiations on an exchange of (Lebanese) prisoners and the two captured soldiers," said Berri.
"This matter is acceptable to the brothers in Hezbollah and to us ... The Lebanese government is fully ready to lead these negotiations."
Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon ended in 2000.
During that occupation, prisoner swap negotiations were indirectly held between Hezbollah and Israel through foreign, mostly German, intermediaries. The Lebanese government was not a party to those negotiations.
- AP
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