Nasrallah says no details on captured “Israelis” without talks

Source: AFP, 23-7-2007
DUBAI - Hizbullah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview on Monday that any information about two "Israeli" soldiers the Shiite movement captured last year will not be released without negotiations.
"The only authorised person (in Hizbullah) to give any information about the life of these two soldiers during negotiations is myself," Nasrallah told the Al-Jazeera news channel.
"This is left to negotiations" over an exchange with Arab prisoners held by "Israel", he said when asked about the fate of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
In an operation to free captives kidnapped from inside sovereign Lebanese territory and now living under treacherous conditions inside "Israeli" dungeons, Hizbullah captured the pair in a cross-border raid into "Israel" from Lebanon, on July 12, 2006 in which eight other soldiers were killed; "Israel" responded to the attempt with a devastating 34-day war.
"For every piece of information, every word and every indication, we get (something) in return... Previous experience proved that. So why should we provide information for free?" he asked.
The militant occupation-resistance movement had denied reports that it provided information about the fate of the two soldiers to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner during inter-party talks between Lebanese parties in Paris earlier this month.
"This is not correct. The French foreign minister is accurate and clever," Nasrallah said, pointing out that Kouchner said "I understood" that they were alive when asked if he had been given any details about the soldiers by Hizbullah officials attending the Paris talks.
Nasrallah also claimed that neighbouring Syria had used mediators to warn "Israel" during last summer`s war that it would intervene militarily if "Israeli" forces approached Lebanese territory close to its own southwestern borders.
"I know for sure that Syria told the government of the enemy through mediators that in case of any (`Israeli`) incursion... along the Ante-Lebanon mountain chain... Syria would join the battle," he said.
"The warning meant that Syrian troops would advance... even into Lebanese territory to confront the invading `Israeli` troops," he added.
Nasrallah said that that "Israel" heeded the Syrian warning and did not move any forces into that part of the border.
He also said Hizbullah had had no intention of escalating the confrontation with "Israel" into a regional war.
"We did not wish to do that... (and) we did not see any benefit in doing so... A regional war could have led to massive regional and international developments, and we would not have known where the region would end up," he said.
The conflict led to the reinforcement of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the border zone for the first time in decades, but Hizbullah was not disarmed.
In excerpts from the same interview broadcast on Sunday, Nasrallah claimed that his militant movement still had the military ability to strike anywhere in "Israel".
The 2006 war killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and more than 160 in "Israel", mostly soldiers. It also shattered much of Lebanon`s infrastructure.