Last update - 00:00 21/10/2006
Report: Annan tasks German agent with securing kidnapped IDF soldiers' release
By Haaretz Staff and the Associated Press
BERLIN - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has tasked a member of Germany's secret service with securing the release of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers kidnapped in July by Hezbollah, a leading German weekly said Saturday.
The agent for Germany's Federal Information Agency, who was not named, has experience in mediating between the Lebanese-based militia and Israel and has been working at securing the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev since September, Der Spiegel said in an advance release of its Monday edition.
A spokesman for the German government declined to comment on the report.
Israel launched a 34-day war this summer after Hezbollah guerrillas entered Israel in a cross-border raid, killed three IDF soldiers and captured Goldwasser and Regev. Their release - which has yet to happen - was a condition of the August 14 cease-fire resolution brokered by the United Nations.
According to the report, the German agent met with Annan in Madrid in September, before heading to the Middle East.
Last month, Israel denied claims that it had asked Annan to act as mediator in negotiations over a possible prisoner swap, saying it had only asked the UN chief to assist in efforts to return the soldiers.
The Israeli response followed a statement by Annan that he intended to appoint a secret envoy to work for the release of Goldwasser and Regev.
In 2004, German intelligence chief Ernst Urlau conducted the talks that led to the release by Hezbollah of Israeli Elhanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of IDF soldiers Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Suad.