Last update - 00:00 18/10/2007
J'lem officials: Kuntar won't be freed without info on Ron Arad
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel has not withdrawn its demand that Hezbollah provide clarification on the fate of Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, who has been missing since his plane went down over Lebanon 21 years ago, government officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz on Wednesday.
The sources reiterated the official stance that Samir Kuntar, convicted of murdering the Haran family in Nahariya in 1979, will not be released unless Hezbollah provides information on Arad. Kuntar is not part of the proposed deal for the release of the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers whose abduction last year by Hezbollah sparked the Second Lebanon War.
Sources involved in the negotiations for the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev said the media was prone "to jump to far-reaching conclusions, not always reality based."
Future developments might bring additional information on Arad, said the sources.
In the first swap since the Second Lebanon War, Israel on Monday released an ailing Hezbollah fighter as well as the bodies of two others, in exchange for the remains of an Israeli civilian who drowned in 2005 off the coast of Haifa and whose body was swept into Lebanese waters.
The information provided Monday by Hezbollah during the exchange with Israel did not shed light on Arad's fate, said the sources. Government officials and negotiators on the Israeli side were unhappy with the failure to provide information on Arad.
The officials were concerned that news reports might give the impression that Israel is now prepared to abandon its long-held stance that Kuntar will not be released until Hezbollah provides information on Arad. The parties involved in negotiations fear such an impression could make Hezbollah less likely to compromise.
But sources in the defense establishment admit the government might have to decide soon on whether it wants to remain intransigent on the Arad-Kuntar formula, or abandon it to promote the deal to release Regev and Goldwasser.
Negotiators on the Israeli side stressed that the negotiations with Hezbollah are in the initial stage, and they would probably take many months to reach the next level.
Israel places some hope in the work of German middlemen working to put together a prisoner release deal, according to the sources. Additional optimism in Jerusalem stems from Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's statement on Tuesday that negotiations would resume in the coming days and expressed optimism about achieving results.
Several times during his address, Nasrallah noted the group's commitment to gain the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel, and stressed he is also demanding the release of prisoners who are not Lebanese.
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