Hizbullah deputy chief: Prisoner swap talks with "Israel" `serious`

Source: Haaretz, 23-4-2007
Hizbullah`s deputy leader said Sunday that the negotiations mediated by the United Nations to secure a prisoner swap between Hizbullah and "Israel" are "serious."
"[The negotiations are] proceeding in a serious manner, but so far there have been no results," Sheik Naim Kassem said. The statement was significant as Hizbullah officials rarely broach the topic of negotiations with "Israel".
Kassem also stressed that "Israeli" Military soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured by Hizbullah on July 12 before the 34-day war between "Israel" and Lebanon, would be released only in exchange for the release of all Lebanese prisoners held in "Israel", including Samir Kuntar.
Kuntar (an occupation-resistance fighter) is serving a prison sentence in "Israel" for the 1979 attack in the northern town of Nahariya. He is one of four men whose release Hizbullah demands.
On the same day the two soldiers were captured, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told a news conference that they would be released only through a prisoner exchange with "Israel". A UN cease-fire resolution that ended the war on August 14 called for the unconditional release of the two soldiers.
"The negotiations are serious and when they reach any result, it will be announced, because we have agreed not to announce details of the negotiations to secure their success and safeguard them from political and media blackmail," Kassem said.
"Israel" had initially rejected calls for a prisoner swap to secure the soldiers` freedom, calling instead for their unconditional release. It later accepted UN mediation in the case. A special UN envoy dispatched last September by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been mediating between Hizbullah and "Israel" on a possible prisoner swap.
Hizbullah has not released any details on the conditions of the two soldiers or provided any sign they are still alive since their capture.
Kassem hoped indirect negotiations between "Israel" and Hizbullah would end quickly and more positively, stressing that all Lebanese prisoners must be freed in any deal. "We are committed to this principle regardless of the patience and sacrifices we endure. We are confident that `Israel` will eventually comply," he said.
Kassem was speaking at a Hizbullah rally in a mosque in Beirut`s war-devastated southern suburbs to mark the 28th anniversary of Samir Kuntar`s imprisonment in "Israel".
"There can be no solution to the prisoner issue except by means of an equal exchange that will release our prisoners, including Samir Kuntar," Kassem said, drawing cheers from the crowd that included Kuntar`s mother and family members. Hizbullah chief, Hassan Nasrallah said in 2004 that media influence was the reason Kuntar was not released in the prisoner deal between the two sides that year.
"Israel" says it will not release Kuntar until it receives information about Ron Arad, an air force navigator who went missing after his plane was shot down during a bombing raid over Lebanon in 1986. His fate is unknown.
There have been prisoner swaps between "Israel" and Hizbullah in the past. In 2004, hundreds of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners were released in exchange for the return of businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers.
During his visit to Lebanon last month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed disappointment that there had been no progress toward the release of Goldwasser and Regev.