High hopes for release of Lebanese hostages

Hezbollah and the Lebanese government said Tuesday they were hopeful that 13 Lebanese men who had been abducted by rebels in Syria while returning from a pilgrimage in Iran would be freed soon.“There are indications that make us hopeful that the issue of the kidnapped will be resolved soon,” said Nabatieh MP Mohammad Raad, head of the party’s parliamentary bloc. Raad was speaking to reporters at Rafik Hariri International Airport, where the pilgrims who had not been abducted – 51 women and four men – arrived from Aleppo after midnight. The group had been traveling aboard two buses through Syria from a pilgrimage in Iran and ran into trouble near Aleppo. Inham Yatim, a pilgrim, said that armed men in a white car forced them to move to an orchard under the pretext of protecting them from shelling. The male pilgrims were then handcuffed and made to face a wall. Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said it had been determined that the kidnapped men were being held by an opposition group, adding that a senior Arab official had told him that calls had been made and the men – who were unharmed – could be released in the coming hours. Earlier in the day, Mansour telephoned Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah. Quoting a member of the Syrian opposition, Reuters reported that Syrian forces had launched raids with tanks and other armored vehicles in an area of northern Aleppo province near the site where the abduction had taken place. “The Free Syrian Army said they took them. They let women go and kept the men. They told them that they would keep them until the Syrian army releases FSA detainees,” a relative of one of the men was quoted by Reuters as saying. “When we crossed the border, around 40 gunmen stopped the bus and forced it into a nearby orchard and said women should stay on the bus and men should get out,” Hayat Awali, who identified herself as a pilgrim, told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV from Aleppo. An FSA spokesperson strongly denied that the group had been behind the abduction. On hearing news of the abduction, angry relatives took to the streets of Beirut’s southern suburbs – where most of the kidnapped live – blocking roads with burning tires. The roads reopened soon after Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah called for calm. “On behalf of Hezbollah and Amal, I call on all relatives and supporters in the various regions to cooperate to end the closure of roads. Blocking roads does no good,” said Nasrallah on Al-Manar TV, expressing concern over attempts to create conflict between the people and the Lebanese Army. The Hezbollah leader added that efforts were under way to secure the release of the kidnapped men. “The priority now is how to resolve the issue. We and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will deal with this issue with the utmost responsibility.” “The government should also bear its responsibility and we are all willing to help in the release of the abducted Lebanese,” he added. Nasrallah said Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Berri had already made contacts and “we have also begun contacts on the side.” The Hezbollah leader also blasted media reports of possible revenge kidnappings of Syrians in Lebanon. “It is forbidden to talk about the kidnapping of Syrians in Lebanon or other expats from other sisterly countries,” he said. The abduction was also condemned by the head of the opposition Future Movement. In a telephone conversation with Berri, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the movement’s leader, “denounced in the strongest terms the kidnapping, regardless of the group behind it.” “[Hariri expressed] complete solidarity with the families of the kidnapped,” said a statement from Hariri’s office. In separate statement, Hariri said: “The kidnappers should know that the Lebanese people are united in this issue and we deal with it as a Lebanese national cause, which doesn’t afford any interpretation or bargaining.” President Michel Sleiman also spoke with Berri to discuss efforts to release the men, while Raad telephoned Sleiman on behalf of Nasrallah, thanking him for his concern. Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt also contacted the speaker. Berri and Mikati also called foreign officials in an effort to secure the release of the pilgrims. For his part, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the head of the Future parliamentary bloc, described the kidnapping as “unacceptable.” “On behalf of my colleagues in the Future bloc, we reiterate our condemnation of these acts from any side ... and our call for the release of the withheld,” Siniora said. – With additional reporting by Atallah al-Salim From The Daily Star