Last update - 00:00 07/05/2007
PA officials urge Johnston captors to drop Islamic justification
By The Associated Press
Palestinian officials are trying to persuade the kidnappers of a long-held BBC journalist that they are mistaken in using Islamic justifications for their actions, an aide to the Palestinian Prime Minister told The Associated Press on Monday.
Ahmed Youssef, an aide to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, said there are currently contacts with the captors of Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza and has since been held for 50 days. Johnston has been in captivity for longer by far than any other Western hostage.
"It's on the way to being resolved. It's being addressed religiously and ideologically," he said, but refused to estimate whether he expected Johnston to be released in days or weeks.
Youssef said negotiators were trying to convince kidnappers that the extremist Islamic ideology they used to justify holding Westerners is incorrect. Last week Haniyeh suggested the kidnappers belonged to an Islamic extremist group.
Youssef also denied a newspaper report listing the demands of the kidnappers - a tract of land from the Palestinian government, 5 million dollars from the British government, and the release of an Iraqi woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, 35, sentenced to death in Jordan for her role in the al-Qaida-led triple hotel bombing that killed 60 people there.
"The report is not precise, it is not correct," Youssef said in the telephone interview.
There has been no public word of Johnston's condition since he was snatched by gunmen from a Gaza street on March 12.
Youssef said the government's office had received assurances that Johnston was in a safe place, and in good health.
"We welcome all efforts to free him. It's clearly very sad for us that he is still being held - 50 days is a very long time for anyone to remain in captivity," said Simon Wilson, editor of the BBC's Middle East bureau. "We can't comment on everything that is coming out of Gaza. The [Palestinian] government has said they will do everything they can to get Alan freed."