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By Nayla Razzouk BEIRUT (AFP) - Tensions intensified in Lebanon on Sunday following the capture a day earlier of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese-based Hezbollah, as tentative moves toward arranging a swap of the soldiers for Lebanese detainees held in Israel were being made.
The capture of the Israeli soldiers was at the heart of discussions early Sunday between Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss and Henry Fournier, a representative of the International Committee for the Red Cross in Beirut. Fournier was also due to meet later in the day with senior Hezbollah officials regarding a possible swap operation, according to some sources. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah offered, in a televised interview late Saturday, to exchange the soldiers for the Lebanese detainees. A high-ranking Lebanese official said that there was still no decision on who would mediate the possible prisoner swap, referring to unconfirmed reports that Germany was involved. But in Berlin, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said, "Germany is not involved in the mediation." The pro-Syrian As Safir newspaper said in an extraordinary edition Sunday that a "western capital" contacted Hezbollah to negotiate the possible swap. As Safir said calls from U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud were also made to facilitate an exchange of prisoners. Among the 19 Lebanese detainees in Israel are senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeib and Islamic leader Mustapha Dirani. Obeid and Dirani have been detained without charges for eleven and six years, respectively. They were both snatched in separate Israeli commando operations in Lebanon. Israel is holding Lebanese hostages for the return, dead or alive, of four Israeli servicemen, notably airman Ron Arad, missing in earlier actions in Lebanon. As Israel demands the return of airman Arad, loud supersonic booms shook the skies of Beirut and southern Lebanon as Israeli jets broke the sound barrier, provoking panic among residents, many of whom stayed at home after Saturday's flare-up of violence and Israeli threats of retaliation. In southern Lebanon, the Hezbollah remained in a state of full alert as Israel sent extra troops to its border with its northern neighbor earlier in the day. Hezbollah ordered its force, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, to abandon their frontier observation posts and hide in olive groves and fields near the border. On Saturday, Hezbollah captured three Israeli soldiers, giving the Jewish state a second front of Arab conflict, as hostilities with the Palestinians raged into their 10th day. Early Sunday, Hezbollah fired two mortar shells at an Israeli position in the Shebaa Farms, a mountainous area at the Lebanese-Syrian borders occupied by Israel since 1967, Israeli security sources said. No group has yet to claim responsibility for an operation that targeted an Israeli army post at the Rowaissat al-Aalam farm. The Israeli army closed off Shebaa Farms, where Hezbollah captured the three soldiers in an ambush that sparked warnings of fierce reprisals from the Jewish state, on Sunday. Israel's reinforcements were unable to stop about 50 Palestinian refugees from gathering at Lebanon's border with Israel early Sunday to hurl stones and flaming tires at Israeli soldiers on the other side. The Palestinians had gathered at the border, southeast of the coastal town of Naqoura facing the Israeli settlement of Zareet. The refugees, many of whom were waving Palestinian and Hezbollah flags, hurled projectiles at Israeli soldiers who took cover behind olive trees, cement blocks and military vehicles. On Saturday, Israeli soldiers at this border point had opened fire at a similar demonstration, killing two Palestinians and wounding 17 more. |
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