BEIRUT: Qatar has delayed an expected visit to the country by General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim to negotiate the release of police officers and Army soldiers held hostage by ISIS and Nusra Front militants, security sources told The Daily Star.
The visit will be delayed until the captors’ official demands are relayed to the government, the sources said.
Sources close to Maj. Gen. Ibrahim told The Daily Star that he was expected to head to Qatar and meet with intelligence officials and those in charge of the Syrian crisis dossier there.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam is also expected to visit Doha Sunday, sources close to the prime minister told The Daily Star.
The Cabinet Tuesday officially tasked Ibrahim with following up on the case of the captured, although ministers have said that he had already been tasked with negotiations since the security personnel were taken hostage during clashes in Arsal between the Army and the militants last month.
Qatar has dispatched a Syrian mediator to negotiate the release of the soldiers. The man, whose identity has been kept under wraps, has met with the two radical groups and reportedly relayed their demands to the Lebanese government.
The groups are still holding at least 22 soldiers and policemen, who were captured by the militants during last month’s battle in Arsal, when militants loyal to ISIS and the Nusra Front overran the embattled border town.
Two soldiers have been beheaded by ISIS, with the killing of soldier Abbas Medlej prompting a wave of tit-for-tat kidnappings in the Bekaa Valley with a sectarian bent, while the Nusra Front has so far released seven. The beheading of Medlej, announced over the weekend, also sparked retaliatory attacks against Syrian refugees in Lebanon shortly after the emergence of the news. Wednesday evening, two Syrian refugees were wounded in the Bekaa Valley village of al-Qaa when gunmen in a car opened fire at a Syrian refugee camp in the area, the National News Agency reported.
The Cabinet has urged the judiciary to speed up the trials and cases of some 93 Islamist detainees arrested over involvement in the clashes between militants of Fatah al-Islam and the Army in Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon and release those who have been in prison longer than any sentence they face.
Speaking to MTV local television station, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi expected the cases to be finalized before the end of the year.
“Based on our estimation, we will get done with this issue before New Year’s Eve … Regretfully, the state, judiciary and the entire Lebanese society did not do enough for the trials [to be held with the required speed],” Rifi said.
Ibrahim played a vital role in resolving two previous hostage crises: 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were kidnapped by Syrian rebel groups and 13 Syrian nuns who were also abducted by separate rebel groups.
The back-and-forth over the hostage negotiations came as the families of the captives launched an open-ended sit-in in the capital’s Martyrs’ Square.
Protesters put up a large tent in Downtown Beirut, calling for speedy government action to secure the release of security personnel.
“We came here to urge the government to act quickly and hold urgent meetings to discuss how to secure the release our beloved captives,” Akkar Mufti Sheikh Zeid Zakaria told the crowd.
“In the name of humanity, we also call on the wise politicians and the wise [leaders of all] sects to act to solve this crisis so that we don’t see a repeat of the scene of the [beheaded] soldiers.”
The protest, launched by the family of decapitated Lebanese soldier Ali al-Sayyed and locals from his northern hometown Fnaydeq, came a few weeks after ISIS released a video showing his execution.
Hussein Ammar Zakaria and Khaled Hasan al-Mouri, family members of two other kidnapped servicemen, also joined the demonstration.
Zakaria called for the speedy trials of the Islamist detainees in the hopes that this would facilitate the swift release of the captive servicemen. He warned the Salam government against ruling out any solutions to end the hostage saga.
“We must not reject any solutions under any circumstances,” he said. “What if one of their [the officials] sons were among the hostages?”
Likewise, Akkar MP Hadi Hobeish called for speedy trials but stressed there should be no bargaining for the captured soldiers.
“We want justice and fair and speedy trials, but no swap,” he said.
Meanwhile, efforts to help modernize the Army to prepare it for future combat against militants continued, with the U.S. delivery of another batch of weapons to the military.
In a statement, the Army said it received a number of weapons and ammunition late Tuesday in line with the U.S. program to arm the military and agreements signed by the two parties.
The handover took place at the Rafik Hariri International Airport.
The U.S. delivered $9 million worth of M16s, anti-tank guided missiles and mortars last month. A further estimated $11 million of military aid, including undetermined heavy weapons, is being delivered to the Army by early September.
Meanwhile, the judiciary prepared to interrogate six Islamist militants recovering from their wounds at a Beirut hospital who are accused of terrorism offenses after their involvement in the Arsal clashes, a judicial source said. The source confirmed media reports that the six suspects, who most likely belong to ISIS, were being treated at Rafik Hariri Hospital in the neighborhood of Jnah.
Military Police have tightened security around the hospitalized men, accused of belonging to terrorist organizations that fought the Army in Arsal.
The source said the detainees were being held under the court order for “terrorism offenses,” but would not say how badly they were wounded.
“Once they have recovered from their wounds, they will face grilling,” the source told The Daily Star. The source dismissed some media reports that suggested swapping the wounded militants for the at least 22 Lebanese soldiers and policemen held by ISIS and the Nusra Front.
“Judicial authorities do not interfere in a [prisoner] swap. They [wounded detainees] must be interrogated. Either they are convicted or they are innocent or they get reduced prison sentences that the court could look into, authorizing parole.”
