Families of Hostages Plead for Solution amid Qatari, Turkish Mediation

The relatives of the Lebanese hostages urged the authorities on Tuesday to bring their loved ones back home with some of them expressing conflicting viewpoints on the negotiations to release them.

“We urge Prime Minister Tammam Salam to resolve the case and bring our loved ones back home,” one of the family members said following talks with Health Minister Wael Abou Faour.

“The authorities haven't provided us with assurances that the negotiations are on the right track,” he said.

But another family member said the government is serious in its attempts to resolve the file and thanked Salam and General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim for their efforts.

The visit of the families of the soldiers and policemen, who were taken captive by jihadists in August last year, came amid claims that a Qatari-Turkish delegation will visit the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal next week to meet the kidnappers.

According to An Nahar daily, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and Ibrahim are upbeat about the negotiations to set the captives free.

The newspaper also said that Qatar and Turkey began to mediate after unofficial intermediaries Sheikh Mustafa al-Hujeiri and Ahmed al-Fliti ended their mediation.

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.

Media reports said recently that al-Nusra Front handed over to a Qatari mediator a list of its demands.

G.K.

D.A.