BEIRUT: Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk supports the Progressive Socialist Party’s appointment of Arsal’s Deputy Mayor to mediate talks with the captors of 25 Lebanese servicemen, the families of the hostages said Monday.
After a meeting with the interior minister, the families held a brief press conference in which a spokesperson announced that Machnouk “supports any effort in the case that would liberate the captives from Arsal’s outskirts, especially the efforts of [Deputy Mayor] Ahmad Fliti.”
The spokesperson quoted Machnouk as saying that the Cabinet supports a deal that involves trading Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison for the captives.
According to the spokesperson, the new mediator is set to contact the Nusra Front for a forthcoming meeting.
Health Minister Wael Abu Faour appointed Fliti to mediate talks with the Nusra Front and ISIS. Fliti told the Daily Star that he was commissioned by Abu Faour under the instruction of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt to take charge of mediation efforts.
Fliti, who will serve as a liaison between the militants and Abu Faour, noted that he was commissioned by only a faction in the Lebanese government and not the Cabinet as a whole. An official appointment by the Lebanese government may be possible, he said.
According to the deputy mayor, who met with ISIS militants on the outskirts of Arsal earlier Sunday, the group expressed its readiness to work with him.
"I received word from [Health] Minister Wael Abu Faour that Arsal deputy Mayor Ahmad Fliti has brought with him a serious offer after he visited the kidnappers,” Jumblatt said in remarks published Monday.
The militants’ proposal “could be the key to resolving the hostage issue,” Jumblatt told local newspaper An-Nahar.
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