BEIRUT: Lebanon is waiting for a response from Turkey on whether it was willing to join efforts to free the 25 Lebanese servicemen held hostage by Islamist militants on the Syria border, a senior security source said Monday.
The source told The Daily Star that security authorities sent a letter to Ankara about 10 days ago asking for help in the hostage crisis, but Turkish officials have not yet responded.
He said Turkey and Qatar are the only two countries that could help end the nearly five-month-old crisis.
The source said contacts held with Doha and Ankara since the beginning of the August crisis did not yield any results.
ISIS and Nusra Front briefly overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in early August. As they retreated they took with them more than 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen captive in the hopes of swapping them for Islamists held in Roumieh prison and Syrian jails. They have since released eight and killed four.
The source had doubts about a happy ending in the near future, saying the captors “are not serious and are divided among themselves and do not want to free the hostages.”
“They will continue to blackmail Lebanon and the hostage families through this precious card.”
The source said the kidnappers had no explicit demands, adding that information that they seek to swap the hostages with prisoners in Lebanese jails was inaccurate.
“Information leaked to Lebanese authorities is that the [captors’] main demands were large amounts of cash,” he said.
On Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt’s remarks about “serious efforts” made by the captors that will likely end the hostage ordeal, the source said a similar proposal made earlier by PSP minister Wael Abu Faour had been rejected. The source did not want to reveal details of the offer.
He said Prime Minister Tammam Salam and his government were in favor of a comprehensive solution to the crisis, something which seems almost impossible.
The source said one of the strongest cards the government holds – to execute Islamist prisoners with death sentences issued against them – requires political consensus, which does not exist.
He stressed that the government would not collapse in the event of any negative development in the crisis. “But the government could enter a state of paralysis and lack of productivity.”
The source said Jumblatt’s action was due to the pressure exerted on him by his own community given that seven of the hostages are Druze.
He ruled out rumors about ISIS’s military ability to replace Nusra in the hostage crisis, saying Nusra Front was stronger and that Nusra commander Abu Malek Al-Talli holds the upper hand in the Arsal area.
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