German spy chief confirms role in Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap

The head of Germany's foreign secret service (BND), Ernst Uhrlau, on Friday said his agency has been involved in the Israeli-Palestinian prisoner exchange. Talking to German television, Uhrlau voiced 'pride' over BND's role in the swap of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for more than 1,000 Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails for years. A top BND agent, Gerhard Conrad is reportedly believed to have been closely involved in the Shalit case since October 2009, when he was appointed by Merkel as a personal envoy. Known in intelligence circles as 'Mr Hizbollah' after brokering a successful prisoner exchange between the Israelis and the Lebanese organisation in 2008, Conrad has more than a decade's secret service experience working in the Middle East According to the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Conrad headed the BND's Damascus office between 1998 and 2002. A fluent Arabic speaker, he was approached to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians as part of an Egyptian delegation. Berlin has in the past been tight-lipped over its role in Israeli-Arab prisoner swaps. There have been German media speculations that part of the Shalit-Hamas prisoner transfer might be conducted on German soil.