27 fighters for three soldiers

Israel holds secret talks with Islamic radicals

Within two to three weeks, a deal on the exchange of prisoners of war between Israel and radical Islamic groups, namely the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, could take place. The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported that Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners would be exchanged for soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured on July 12 on the border with Lebanon, as well as Gilad Shalit, captured on June 25 on the border with the Gaza Strip. Negotiations on the exchange are being conducted through the mediation of Germany.

The Egyptian newspaper did not name the prisoners to be released. However, Vremya Novostei learned that we are talking about a group of 15 Lebanese, which apparently includes the well-known Samir Kuntar. He is serving a life sentence for the April 1979 terrorist attack in the Israeli city of Nahariya. His presence on the list explains the small number of fighters Hezbollah demanded in exchange for Israeli soldiers. Indeed, in 2004, in exchange for Israeli businessman Elhanan Tennenbaum and the remains of three of its servicemen, Israel freed 436 Arab prisoners. Then Germany also mediated the deal; by the way, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will visit Berlin today.

“Israel will have to release high-ranking prisoners, including Samir Kuntar. This is almost inevitable,” Moshe Marzuk, an employee of the Israeli Institute for Combating Terrorism in Herzliya and retired Army Intelligence Lieutenant Colonel, told Vremya Novostei. If the exchange of Israeli soldiers for Arab prisoners takes place, then active negotiations will continue on the fate of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who is being held in the Gaza Strip. Today Gilad Shalit turns 20 years old. He had already spent two months and three days in captivity.

According to the same Al-Ahram, for the release of Shalit, the Palestinians demanded the release from prison of 12 figures from various Palestinian groups, including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat. Both are serving life sentences for organizing terrorist attacks.

While Israel is conducting secret negotiations on the exchange of prisoners of war, the international community is trying to normalize the situation in the region. Already within this week, four thousand peacekeepers from Europe should arrive in southern Lebanon. In total, the EU will send seven thousand peacekeepers, who will join the already existing two thousand UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) under the command of French General Alain Pellegrini. Two battalions of 800 men each will arrive from France. There are already about 400 French soldiers in Lebanon, half of them military engineers and sappers.

France will lead the peacekeeping mission until February 2007. Command will then pass to Italy, which is sending about three thousand soldiers to Lebanon, with the Italian vanguard due to arrive there tomorrow. Spain will supply about 1,200 people to the peacekeeping corps, Poland - 500, Belgium - 400, Finland - 250. Portugal, Latvia and Lithuania promised to send their soldiers, but did not provide details. Germany, fearing accidental clashes between its troops and Israeli troops, is ready to offer any military assistance in Lebanon, but not ground troops. Britain, Greece and Sweden take a similar position. Quite unexpectedly, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the President of Turkey, from which the UN expected five thousand soldiers, spoke out against participation in the mission. According to Sezer, sending Turkish soldiers to Lebanon “can be considered once the UN Security Council resolution becomes clear.”

Today, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is arriving in Lebanon for negotiations on this topic, having already stated that the peacekeepers will not disarm Hezbollah. For this to happen, Annan said, “a political consensus must be reached among the Lebanese themselves.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced that so far no decision has been made on the issue of sending Russian peacekeepers to South Lebanon. In Israel, this possibility was treated with caution. “The deployment of Russian soldiers in Lebanon is a serious step that requires careful study by Israel,” Moshe Marzuk told VN. “The problem is that Russia is interested in concluding economic deals with Arab countries, especially in the supply of weapons, without particularly caring that these weapons do not always end up in clean hands.”

Dmitry DUBOV, Jerusalem, Alexey SLOBODIN