Talk of prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah (Roundup)

Dec 11, 2007, 13:03 GMT

Beirut - The release of an Iranian and a Lebanese convicted of the murder of four opponents of Tehran in Germany might be a prelude for a new prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, a western diplomatic source said Tuesday.

Iranian Kazem Darabi was prematurely released from prison on Monday and deported to Iran, while Lebanese Abbas Rhayel was freed on December 6 and sent back to Lebanon.

The two were sentenced in 1997 to life imprisonment for shooting to death four Iranians at a Greek restaurant called Mykonos in Berlin in September 1992.

The court that convicted them said they were leaders of a gang set up by the Iranian Islamist authorities to kill the leaders of the opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.

A western diplomat in Beirut told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the release the pair was linked to negotiations on a 'second phase' of a German-mediated prisoners' swap between Israel and Hezbollah.

'This step is a prelude to for a new prisoner swap but bigger than the one we witnessed on October 15,' the diplomat said.

On October 15, Hezbollah handed over the remains of Gabriel Dwait, an Ethiopian immigrant who drowned in January 2005. A Lebanese source said his body had washed up on the Lebanese coast and handed over to Hezbollah by the fishermen who found it.

Israel freed prisoner Hassan Naim Akeel, a Hezbollah fighter captured in the 2006 war, and handed over the bodies of Ali Wizwaz and Mohammed Damashqiah, who had apparently been taken to Israel after they died in the fighting in Lebanon in July 2006.

At the time a statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the swap was 'part of the framework of negotiations to return' Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

The two were captured by Hezbollah during a cross-border attack on July 12, 2006, which later led to 33-day Israeli war on Lebanon.

The diplomatic source said the swap on October 15 was part of a 'confidence-building process' but noted that Hezbollah had not given Israel any information about the status of the two soldiers.

A United Nations-appointed mediator, believed to be a German intelligence officer, is working on a deal to get the soldiers exchanged for Lebanese and other prisoners. There has been no word on whether they are alive and, if so, on their condition.

The diplomatic source stressed that the swap in October came four days after Germany said it would grant early release the Darabi and Rhayel.

'Now they are released so we can expect something ... a bigger swap to take place, especially that the German mediator has been shuttling between Israel and Lebanon in the past two weeks,' the diplomat added.

Unconfirmed reports in October said the two captured Israeli soldiers were handed to Iran by Hezbollah in 2006.

'If these reports are true, then the release of the Iranian and the Lebanese from Germany, would push forward the ongoing negotiations between Hezbollah and Israel, through the Germans,' the Lebanese security source told dpa.

Hezbollah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in a speech a day after the 'limited swap' took place vowed that the second phase of the swap would take place soon.

'Since we have a major Muslim feast coming up, Adha (Sacrifice) feast, which marks the end of the Mecca Pilgrimage, ... there might be a chance that a swap will be achieved before or during this holiday (December 20), if no obstacles arise,' the western diplomatic source revealed.

In exchange for the two Israeli soldiers, Hezbollah is hoping to secure the release of all Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails as well as high-ranking Palestinians like Marwan Bargoutti.

Israel detained three Hezbollah guerrillas during the July 2006 war. Israel has held Lebanese Samir Kontar since April 22, 1979 after he was sentenced to a 542-year prison term. It refused to release him during the last detainees swap on January 29, 2004.