'Positive' Talks in Qatar in Case of Abducted Pilgrims

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and General Security chief Brig. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim held “positive” talks with senior Qatari officials over the case of abducted Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aleppo province, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The two officials tackled with Qatari officials the efforts that their country can exert to free the nine remaining men.

According to An Nahar and al-Liwaa newspapers, Qatar agreed to appoint a security chief to coordinate and follow up the matter with the Lebanese authorities.

The meetings included talks with Qatari Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalid al-Thani.

Charbel and Abbas headed on Monday to Doha on a two-day official visit after the interior minister vowed to press the Qatari authorities to play a positive role in the case of the pilgrims.

Eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Aleppo in May as they were making their way back to Lebanon by land from pilgrimage in Iran.

Two of the captives were released last year, while the rest remain held in the town of Aazaz.

Last week, the families of the men held a sit-in outside the Qatari Embassy in Beirut.

The families accused the government of neglecting the case of the pilgrims, blaming mainly Charbel.

They had continuously held Turkey and Qatar responsible for releasing their loved ones.

Late in 2012, the families had also vowed to stage escalatory measures against Turkish interests in Lebanon to pressure Turkey to exert efforts to end the abduction, but they called off their actions at Charbel's request.

However, the Senior Adviser to the Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Arshad Hurmuzlu, stressed on Monday that the case is a local affair, downplaying the impact of the threats carried out by the families on Lebanese-Turkish ties.