PSP Calls for Swap to End Hostage Standoff
The Progressive Socialist Party of MP Walid Jumblat called on Friday for a prisoner swap to secure the freedom of the soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists.
Speaking on behalf of Jumblat, who is currently in Paris Health Minister Abou Faour said: “The Lebanese authorities should adopt a prisoner exchange.”
But the jihadists “should first vow that they would stop killing more soldiers as a condition for the (possible) exchange,” the PSP official said.
The militants, who took the hostages from the northeastern border town of Arsal last month, have reportedly set several conditions to freeing the captives, including the release of Islamist inmates held in Roumieh prison.
They killed three of the hostages in August and September and have threatened to execute more if their demands were not met.
Abou Faour spoke after meeting with a delegation from the soldiers' relatives.
The minister said he did not ask the families to reopen the roads that they have been blocking to up pressure on the authorities to meet the demands of the jihadists.
Abou Faour urged the relatives of the hostages to “remain united and keep their protest away from political and sectarian divisions.
He also called for the support of the army, which he described as “neutral” and as standing at a distance from political divisions.
He said the Syrian refugees are not responsible for the attacks on the army. “There should not be retaliatory assaults against them.”
The killing of the soldiers by the militants, have sparked violence against Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
After his press conference, Abou Faour visited the relatives of the captives who have blocked the Dahr al-Ahmar road in Rashaya.
G.K.
M.T.
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