Middle East News
German negotiator informs Israel missing aviator is dead (Roundup)
Jun 30, 2008, 10:38 GMT
Beirut/Tel Aviv - United Nations hostage negotiator Gerhard Konrad has handed over a message to Israel from Hezbollah indicating that missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad is dead, a Lebanese security source said Monday.
According to the source, the German negotiator has handed over the report from Hezbollah to Israel, which he said details the organization's efforts to obtain information on Arad as part of the second stage of the prisoner swap agreement which was approved by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday.
The source said the report indicates that Arad was killed two years after he was captured.
For their part, Israel will give Hezbollah a report on the fate of four Iranian diplomats kidnapped and killed during the Lebanon war in the 1980s.
Israel has previously said it does not know what happened to the diplomats, who were arrested at a Christian Phalange party roadblock in north Lebanon in 1982 and are believed to have been subsequently been executed.
Israel is formally to sign the German-brokered agreement with Hezbollah on a prisoner exchange only after it receives the report on Arad, Israeli media reported Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet approved the agreement Monday afternoon, after a six-hour, stormy debate.
Under the agreement, Hezbollah is first to submit a detailed report on the efforts it has made to solve the mystery of Arad, who went missing after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.
As part of the controversial deal, Israel is to release Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar, thus far considered the main bargaining chip for information on Arad.
Kuntar led a 1979 infiltration and hostage-taking into Israel from Lebanon, in which he and his men killed four Israelis, including a father and his four-year-old daughter whom they had taken hostage.
On receiving the report, studying it and finding it 'serious,' the Israeli government will then release Kuntar within 10 days, Israeli security officials told Israel Radio.
Israel will also free four Hezbollah fighters caught in the July- August 2006 second Lebanon war, as well as the bodies of about 10 others killed in that war.
In return, Hezbollah is to free Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, two Israeli reserve soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah in a July 12, 2006, cross-border raid sparked the 33-day war.
Olmert told his cabinet Monday that the two soldiers were dead.
The swap is to take place at the Rosh Hanikra crossing, on the coast and on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Israel is then to free between seven and 10 Palestinian prisoners within 30 days of the exchange, as a 'goodwill measure for the Palestinian people.'
The latter clause is seen as a compromise, with Hezbollah initially demanding the release of scores of Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
No talks with terrorists. Don't legitimize Hezbollah by negotiating with them. Kuntar is a murderer who is going to be released. Nuts.
Nice comments. I think your God would write something unpleasant about you in his records, too, for the type of commentary you've been giving.
The Jews in Israel have horribly mistreated the Palestinians. Any communication between the two parties that could lead *toward* (just in the general direction) justice should be welcome.
So don't be an idiot. They call Jews pigs who aren't worth a Palestinian life because you stole their land.
We all know the real exchange rate is 1:1, and it would be best if we stopped playing with lives altogether.
I find the Jewish government very honorable in that they do what they need to do in order to find their servicemen who have been abducted. Unlike the US government which leaves their servicemen behind. While I do not totally believe in negotiating with terrorist lets be honest, it is done all the time, the only people that do not realize this is the public. My qestion is what will Isreal do once it has its dead soldiers back? I am sure they will not sit on their hands and do nothing.
You can't really take these reports too seriously. Their purpose is mainly to get you to see Israel in a positive light. They are highly spun with various errors and omissions.
Newspapers the world over should do more to educate the people about the rift in that part of the world. I am 33 years old and I am Christian. I have read so much from different angles trying to understand the truth. I support Israel but I wonder if it is true that they went in one night and drove the Palestinians out. I also read that since then they have been trying to get their land back and we call them Terrorist. I am just about to finish the book “blood brothers” if that account is true, it is sad. Also I do not think that the person that posted the first comment is educated. He/she must learn to be tolerant and not say inflammatory statements like what he said. I hope you post this and I pray that there would be peace in that land. There is no life that is worth more than the other
I am Christian. i saw how Israel killed christian relligions inside of Palestina and Israel. Many monastries were closed or pressed out of this land. THerefore i do not support Israel and i dont belive Israelian goverment and people have right to controlle Midle East.
If Israel will to live in a fulltime war with other countries i dont mind. its israelian money and lifes. to bad europe waste own money there.
Now after christianity is killed there it were much better to border Israel and Palestinians and to sell them so much weapons as possible. the winner will get the future.
I'd love to hear how the Israelis justify the kidnapping and subsequent murder of 4 Iranian diplomats. It's funny how kidnapping and murder is reprehensible unless it's done by jews. The, magically it becomes justifiable.
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realy think about itJun 30th, 2008 - 12:35:53
Basically the deal is roughly 450 - 1000 arab prisnors for two jews ...um well aren't they the people that say jews are worth less than pigs and that they should be wiped from the world map ...if this was a business deal ..would you continue....so why now are jews at the current rate of exchange worth 225 - 500 of them... No Deal .... Giliat and crew you have earnt your place in the book of life ...bless your mothers and farthers ...no deal send our boys home .....or we will take up your terms of exchange one jewish life for 500 of yours
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