A near deal
A much publicised swap of individuals held by both Israel and Hizbullah brought hope to families on both sides, but Tehran is in two minds about it. Mohalhel Fakih reports form Beirut
Israel and Hizbullah are poised to resolve one of the thorniest consequences of the Jewish state's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, with a prisoner exchange between the two sides expected soon. The swap, and the negotiations leading to it, are not restricted to Israel and Hizbullah, but also involve the Palestinians and Iran. Although Hizbullah has vowed to continue its struggle against Israel's occupation even if the deal succeeds, the swap seems to be highly popular in both Israel and Lebanon.
Israel's expected release from its jails of all 15 Lebanese prisoners, including resistance leaders Mustafa Dirani and Abdul-Karim Obeid, as well as hundreds of Palestinians and other Arabs, would bolster Hizbullah's standing as a powerful player in regional politics. Despite Israel's May 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the resistance Shi'ite group has pledged it would continue with its military struggle against Israel until the liberation of "every inch of occupied land" -- a reference to the Shebaa Farms, which straddles the Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli borders. Hizbullah captured three Israeli soldiers from the occupied area in October 2000, and weeks later the group said it seized Israeli Reservist Colonel Elhanan Tannenbaum, whom it described as a spy. It wants to exchange them for all the Lebanese, Palestinian, and Arab detainees that Israel is holding, along with two Iranian diplomats who disappeared during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
"We will not stop until we regain all our prisoners and the bodies of our beloved martyrs," Sheikh Nabil Qawook, Hizbullah's top official in southern Lebanon, said at the funeral of two fighters whose bodies were handed over to the group by Israel last August, a move that observers believe set the course for the expected swap.
Although the swap would give Hizbullah the chance to pose as an Arab and Muslim liberator, Israel has been under tremendous pressure by the families of the soldiers held by Hizbullah to win their release. As part of the deal, Israel is expected to release Palestinian political prisoners whose fate had been the source of high tension in the occupied Palestinian territories.
"We are following with Hizbullah the issue of a prisoner swap, especially after it was confirmed that a deal would include a number of Palestinian captives and detainees," Hamas Politburo Chairman Khaled Mashaal said in Beirut on Saturday after meeting Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. The latter held talks with Islamic Jihad officials on Friday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said last week that a prisoner exchange deal was "closer than at any time in the past". Meanwhile, Hizbullah's chief said in a newspaper interview that there was "great hope" of a deal taking place "soon". Speaking to the Lebanese daily Al-Safir, Nasrallah said that a deal would include the "greatest number" of Palestinians.
Despite mounting pressure from the family of missing Israeli airman, Ron Arad, to freeze the exchange deal until the fate of their son is revealed, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a television interview that prisoners held in Europe could be part of the German-brokered swap. It was not immediately clear whether Sharon was referring to Britain in his remarks, for Germany has also been holding an Iranian convicted of killing four Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant in 1992. Israeli newspapers reported that several Iranian and Lebanese prisoners held in England and Germany might be exchanged in return for information on Arad. Hizbullah has consistently denied holding Arad, and Nasrallah said that he told a "German mediator" that the group has "no new information" about him. "We told [the mediator] that Hizbullah was prepared to make a solemn pledge to do its utmost to ascertain the fate of the Israeli airman," Nasrallah added.
Meanwhile, tension was running high between Israel and Iran. Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi accused Israel on Sunday of being behind Britain's arrest in August of former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour. The former ambassador was arrested in Britain in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires. Israeli press reports said that Soleimanpour could be used as a bargaining chip to obtain information about Arad. But Asefi dismissed this possibility. "The issue of Israeli hostages has nothing to do with Iran," he said. "The Zionist regime's behaviour, saying they are ready to swap [the former ambassador] for some Israelis, completely proves Israel was behind [his arrest]," the Iranian spokesman told reporters in Tehran.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 2 - 8 October 2003 (Issue No. 658)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/658/re2.htm