BEIRUT: Nusra has dropped its demand for Hezbollah to withdraw from Syria before freeing the 27 captives being held in northeast Lebanon because the jihadists would now prefer to beat them on the ground, a commander said Monday.
"We want to kick [Hezbollah] out [of Syria] through a military defeat,” the unnamed Nusra commander was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency.
He also said Nusra did not want to be accused of making impossible demands.
Nusra and ISIS have been holding 27 Lebanese soldiers and policemen captives since they clashed with the Lebanese Army in the northeastern town of Arsal three months ago.
The militants originally abducted more than 30, but seven have been released, and three executed.
A Qatari-appointed Syrian mediator met with the captures last week near Arsal and received a list of demands for the release of the hostages.
Nusra announced after the visit that it gave the Lebanese government three choices: either to release 10 Islamist detainees from prison for each captive; to release seven detainees and ask the Syrian government to release 30 women from its prisons for each captive; or to release five men from Lebanon and 50 women from Syria for each captive.
The crisis cell, which is a small committee responsible of the negotiations on behalf of the government, is meeting Wednesday or Thursday to discuss the demands of Nusra. The Cabinet will have its weekly meeting Thursday, during which the ministers may make a decision over the hostage crisis.
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