Hizbullah says "Israel" prisoner swap talks still on

Source: Reuters, 30-1-2007
BEIRUT - U.N.-mediated indirect talks for a prisoner exchange between "Israel" and Hizbullah are still going on, the Shi`ite Muslim group`s leader said on Tuesday.
The secretive negotiations are designed to secure the release of two "Israeli" soldiers, whose capture in a border raid on July 12 last year ignited a 34-day war between "Israel" and Hizbullah, in return for Lebanese and Arab prisoners.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced in November that indirect talks, through a U.N.-appointed German negotiator, had begun to broker an exchange deal.
Very little have been heard on the talks since. "Israel" says the soldiers were seriously wounded when they were seized and Hizbullah has refused to say whether the men were dead or alive.
"The captives, we are negotiating and the negotiations are underway to liberate them," Nasrallah told a large crowd attending the annual Shi`ite Ashura religious ceremony in Beirut`s southern suburb.
"I stress that the resistance is ready... and those who think that the resistance have been weakened or it`s now in despair or tired, those are delusional," he said to chants of "death to `Israel`".