Charbel: Security Agencies, Army Intelligence Doing their Utmost to Release Kuwaiti Captive
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stated that Kuwaiti national Issam Ibrahim Nasser al-Houti was not abducted for political reasons, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
He told the daily: “The security agencies and army intelligence are doing their utmost to ensure his release.”
Meanwhile, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry and the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut announced that contacts are ongoing “at the highest levels” in order to release the captive.
Lebanon’s Ambassador to Kuwait Bassam al-Naamani reiterated to Kuwait’s Al-Seyassah newspaper Sunday Charbel’s remarks that Houti was not kidnapped for political or security reasons.
“It was an individual incident whereby some sides sought to exploit the currents tensions in Lebanon in order to commit this deplorable act,” he added.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati had remarked on Saturday that kidnappings “harm civil peace and Lebanon’s image,” said al-Seyassah.
Gunmen kidnapped al-Houti, 52, in the area of Hawsh al-Ghanam in the eastern Bekaa valley, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.
It said that he was driving his red Kia, which carries the Qatari license plate 20/27880, from Talya when the armed men followed him and opened fire near his feet as soon as he arrived at his rented house in Hawsh al-Ghanam.
The assailants then kidnapped the man and sped away in their Mercedes 300 heading towards Baalbek.
A security official told Agence France Presse that "there are no signs the kidnapping was politically motivated."
Kuwait and several other Gulf states recently ordered their nationals to leave Lebanon in the face of threats, particularly against Saudis and Qataris, whose governments are staunch opponents of the Damascus regime.
NNA identified al-Houti’s wife as Fawziyeh Arafat from the town of Talya.
*Houti's photo courtesy of al-Seyassah newspaper.
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