Report: Qatar's Envoy in Beirut over Lebanese Hostages
An envoy from Qatar was in Beirut on Thursday to mediate in the case of the Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by jihadists last year, al-Mustaqbal daily reported.
Government sources told the newspaper the mediator's arrival in the Lebanese capital was a sign that the negotiations on the captives have made a serious development.
The sources did not reveal his name but said he is not a Qatari national.
Earlier this week, reports said that a Qatari-Turkish delegation will visit the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal to meet the kidnappers of the Lebanese soldiers and policemen.
Qatar and Turkey began to mediate after unofficial intermediaries Sheikh Mustafa al-Hujeiri and Ahmed al-Fliti ended their mission, said the reports.
The captors from the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front have been demanding the release of Islamists held in Lebanon as a condition to set the hostages free.
According to al-Mustaqbal on Thursday, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq discussed the issue with Qatari PM and Interior Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani on the sidelines of an Arab meeting in Algeria.
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