Last update - 00:00 17/02/2008
Likud MK: Stop prisoner talks until Hezbollah provides sign of life
By Haaretz Service and DPA
MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) told Israel Radio on Sunday that negotiations to secure the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces reserve soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev should be halted until Israel receives information that the soldiers are alive.
Steinitz's comments followed a report by the German weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was considering declaring Goldwasser and Regev dead. The article cited no source, and carried no byline.
The two reservists were kidnapped in Hezbollah in June 2006, in an incident that sparked the Second Lebanon War. No sign of life has been received from them.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office rejected the report, and said that negotiations to free Goldwasser and Regev are still underway and the assumption is that the two are still alive.
However, IDF sources said the abductees' situation is being reappraised and that "difficult decisions" could be made within weeks.
The Der Spiegel report came just days after Olmert visited Germany, where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany is mediating between Israel and Hezbollah in negotiations over the kidnapped soldiers.
PMO sources said unequivocal evidence would be required before the soldiers are declared dead, and that this evidence had not been obtained.
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