BEIRUT: The government has received some demands of jihadists holding 27 Lebanese servicemen hostage near the northeast border town of Arsal, Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters before entering a Cabinet meeting in downtown Beirut, he said negotiations to secure the hostages' release were on the right track.
"We have received some of the demands of the kidnappers ... and thing are going well," he said, adding that the process will take some time.
He did not specify what the demands were, in line with the government's policy of discretion over the matter.
But it has been widely reported that the jihadists from the Nusra Front and ISIS are calling for the release of Islamist prisoners in exchange for the hostages, taken during a five-day battle with the Army in August.
The families of the hostages briefly blocked the northern entrance of Beirut Wednesday over the government's failure to show progress in the case.
Abu Faour, who has been tasked with keeping dialogue with the families, convinced them to reopen the road after assuring them that negotiations were progessing.
Families of the hostages Wednesday had also blocked the Qalamoun highway linking Beirut and Tripoli for nearly a day before repoening it Thursday morning.
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