Last update - 00:00 15/07/2007
French FM: I understand that IDF soldiers held by Hezbollah are alive
By Assaf Uni and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents and The Associated Press
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday that he understood that the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah last year were alive and that negotiations for their release were being conducted via the United Nations.
IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas on July 12, 2006. The attack sparked the Second Lebanon War.
The abducted soldiers' families dismissed Kouchner's comments as unreliable. "Until Red Cross representatives see the soldiers, their families have no reason to put store in declarations of whether they are alive or dead," said Shlomo Goldwasser, father of Ehud Goldwasser.
"The foreign minister did not see the soldiers, he is basing his belief on the comments of a Hezbollah representative, which for us is certainly not enough," he added.
Brother of Eldad Regev, Benny Regev, said "What the foreign minister said means nothing, he should send representatives to actually see the missing soldiers, rather than talking."
"It could be that the information has just been given to him by Hezbollah representatives looking to gain legitimacy so they can come to France again," he added.
Kouchner was speaking at a press conference held at the close of two days of talks near Paris on the future of Lebanon. The conference was attended by representatives of Hezbollah and the Western-backed government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
"It is my understanding that the two soldiers are alive," Kouchner told reporters in response to a question by Haaretz.
"I raised the subject of the soldiers with Hezbollah representatives. They told me that the talks on a prisoner swap are in an advanced stage."
He said that there would soon be an agreement via the UN which would include the release of the soldiers. Kouchner also offered his own help with efforts to bring the affair to a conclusion.
Ahead of the Lebanon talks, Kouchner had promised Israel that he would take the opportunity to seek information on the missing soldiers. Hezbollah has refused to allow Red Cross officials to visit the soldiers, and has declined to provide any sign of life.
Lebanon's 14 feuding factions 'break the ice' in talks
Lebanon's feuding political parties broke the ice at meetings outside Paris, Koucher said, conceding there were tense moments during the talks to ease a crisis that has put Lebanon's democracy at risk of breakdown.
The informal talks Saturday and Sunday at a chateau in La Celle Saint Cloud west of Paris, organized by France with U.S. and Iranian approval, had not been expected to bring any breakthrough in the deadlock between the Western-backed prime minister and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
The meeting was designed to simply to get the parties talking, and France's foreign minister said they met that goal.
I think they broke the ice, Kouchner said. I think they were very happy to talk to each other.
While talks the first day were sometimes tense, the atmosphere became more serene and brotherly, Kouchner said. He added that the parties promised to continue talking, and that he would head to Lebanon on July 28 to continue the process.
The meeting was the first time the 14 parties have met since a national dialogue conference in November that failed to resolve the tensions. Since then, the country's worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war has escalated.
Parliament and the government are barely functioning. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora refuses to step down and is locked in a power struggle with the Hezbollah-led, pro-Syrian opposition.
A former colonial power, France has strong ties with some of the rival factions and has hoped to use its clout to encourage dialogue.
The conference is one of the debut diplomatic efforts by the energetic new government of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, co-founded the Nobel Prize-winning aid group Doctors Without Borders. Some critics said France and Kouchner were just seeking the limelight, since they set a meeting with no concrete outcome expected.
Kouchner said the parties pledged not to use violence as a political means and rejected domination from forces outside Lebanon. But pressed on whether that meant Hezbollah agreed to renounce influence from Syria and Iran, Kouchner responded, "I don't know, I hope so."
The political opposition formed around Hezbollah is backed by Iran and Syria.
French envoys discussed plans for the meetings with U.S. and Iranian counterparts - and won their grudging approval - but came under criticism for not vetting them with Syria, Lebanon's longtime overseer.
In addition, Hezbollah almost backed out of the weekend talks after Sarkozy accused the Shiite Muslim group last week of carrying out terrorist acts - raising the question of how France could brand it as a terror group while simultaneously inviting it to visit.
Hezbollah is the largest single bloc in Lebanon's parliament. The resignation of Hezbollah's two Cabinet ministers last year, along with other ministers from the pro-Syrian opposition, threw the country into its current crisis.
The deadlock could also create a power vacuum or even lead to two rival governments if Parliament fails to elect a new president before the November 23 deadline for pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to step down. Kouchner said the parties had not discussed any specific names of possible presidential candidates.