Hezbollah, Israel make first steps to larger prisoner swap (Roundup)

Jun 1, 2008, 14:00 GMT

Beirut - Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Israel made 'initial steps' towards a larger prisoner swap that will include the two Israeli soldiers snatched by the militant Shiite group in July 2006, a source close to the negotiations told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Beirut.

Hezbollah released the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday in exchange for a Lebanese detainee.

'Hezbollah has surprised the Israelis by handing over the remains on Sunday,' the source, who requested anonymity, said.

'This in the negotiations is called a good will gesture, which will pave the way for a bigger swap and also to ease the usually tense negotiations.'

Officials in Israel were quoted as saying Hezbollah's decision to hand over the remains 'was unilateral and was not part of a wider deal.'

Hezbollah mediator Wafik Safa confirmed handing over the Israeli soldiers' remains to reporters at Naqoura crossing in southern Lebanon shortly after a Hezbollah spy, Nassim Nisr, was released and returned to Lebanon.

Nisr recently finished serving a six-year sentence for espionage. Israeli officials have denied his release is part of a reported deal.

A Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon, Sheikh Nabil Kawook, told dpa that 'the movement's goal is to release all Lebanese prisoners and this is our promise for our people and the prisoners.'

'We are people who do not leave our prisoners in jail, especially Israeli jails,' Kawook said.

Nisr, born in 1968 to an Israeli Jewish mother and a Lebanese Muslim father, held Israeli citizenship at the time of his arrest in 2002. He was sentenced to six years in prison for collaborating with Hezbollah.

Nisr left Lebanon during the Israeli invasion of 1982 and joined his mother's family in Israel, where he settled near Tel Aviv.

His release is being seen as part of a broader prisoner exchange deal between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, which captured two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12, 2006.

Israeli army radio reported on Monday that Israel was prepared to release five Lebanese prisoners and return the bodies of 10 Hezbollah fighters in exchange for the two servicemen.

Hezbollah organized two big ceremonies for Nisr, one upon his arrival at the Naqoura crossing and the second in his hometown of Bazouriyeh in southern Lebanon.

'I have been waiting for my son for years. Now he is here and I am very happy,' Nisr's mother, Valentine, told dpa.

Yellow Hezbollah flags covered the streets, while his picture and others of Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasarallah were placed on balconies and electricity poles across the area.

Nisr was saluted by Hezbollah militants and people threw rose petals and rice on him. He thanked Nasrallah and 'the Lebanese resistance' for working on his release.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating 33-day war in 2006 during which Israeli troops invaded Lebanon in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the soldiers.

Nasrallah said last week that all Lebanese prisoners would be home soon, including the longest-held Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar.

Kuntar has been in prison since 1979, when he headed a terrorist attack in Nahariya that led to the death of a policeman as well as a man and his two young daughters.

The release of Nisr comes amid conflicting reports about whether a deal was taking shape in which the two Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, were to be exchanged in return for Kuntar, four Hezbollah prisoners and the remains of 10 Hezbollah men killed in clashes in 2006.

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot on Friday cited a German mediator as saying he assumed that the two soldiers were no longer alive.

The mediator, Gerhard Konrad, has told the Israeli government that he believed Hezbollah was not holding any live soldiers, only dead bodies, the newspaper said.