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Kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser, left, and Eldad Regev. Last update - 02:05 23/04/2007 Hezbollah deputy chief: Prisoner swap talks with Israel 'serious' By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press Hezbollah's deputy leader said Sunday that the negotiations mediated by the United Nations to secure a prisoner swap between Hezbollah and Israel are "serious." "[The negotiations are] proceeding in a serious manner, but so far there have been no results," Sheik Naim Kassem said. The statement was significant as Hezbollah officials rarely broach the topic of negotiations with Israel. Kassem also stressed that Israel Defense Forces soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose capture by Hezbollah on July 12 triggered a 34-day war between Israel and the guerilla group, would be released only in exchange for the release of all Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, including Samir Kuntar. Advertisement Kuntar is serving a 542-year prison sentence in Israel for the 1979 murder of an Israeli man and his daughter in the northern town of Nahariya. He is one of four men whose release Hezbollah demands. On the same day the two soldiers were captured, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told a news conference that they would be released only through a prisoner exchange with Israel. A UN cease-fire resolution that ended the war on August 14 called for the unconditional release of the two soldiers. "The negotiations are serious and when they reach any result, it will be announced, because we have agreed not to announce details of the negotiations to secure their success and safeguard them from political and media blackmail," Kassem said. Israel had initially rejected calls for a prisoner swap to secure the soldiers' freedom, calling instead for their unconditional release. It later accepted UN mediation in the case. A special UN envoy dispatched last September by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been mediating between Hezbollah and Israel on a possible prisoner swap. Hezbollah has not released any details on the conditions of the two soldiers or provided any sign they are still alive since their capture. Kassem hoped indirect negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah would end quickly and more positively, stressing that all Lebanese prisoners must be freed in any deal. "We are committed to this principle regardless of the patience and sacrifices we endure. We are confident that Israel will eventually comply," he said. Kassem was speaking at a Hezbollah rally in a mosque in Beirut's war-devastated southern suburbs to mark the 28th anniversary of Samir Kuntar's imprisonment in Israel. "There can be no solution to the prisoner issue except by means of an equal exchange that will release our prisoners, including Samir Kuntar," Kassem said, drawing cheers from the crowd that included Kuntar's mother and family members. Hezbollah chief, Hasan Nasrallah said in 2004 that media influence was the reason Kuntar was not released in the prisoner deal between the two sides that year. Israel says it will not release Kuntar until it receives information about Ron Arad, an air force navigator who went missing after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. His fate is unknown. There have been prisoner swaps between Israel and Hezbollah in the past. In 2004, hundreds of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners were released in exchange for the return of businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers. During his visit to Lebanon last month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed disappointment that there had been no progress toward the release of Goldwasser and Regev Bookmark to del.icio.us   Getting online, already A gov't official is planning the first Web site 'to connect all Jews around the world'. Naim to meet you French-Israeli folk singer Yael Naim isn't worried about becoming too commercial.   1.   if israel doesnt act now when will it act?? 22:50  |  vik 22/04/07   2.   Prisoner Exchange 23:56  |  * BEN JABO 22/04/07   3.   Samir Kuntar should be released.... 00:06  |  Sherman 23/04/07   4.   Killing Nasrallah and his Leb-protectors the only way out 00:12  |  Absolute Sweden 23/04/07   5.   unconditional release in Persian/Arabic 01:03  |  Ryan 23/04/07   6.   This is what happens when the UN steps in.. 01:31  |  H M 23/04/07   7.   time to start taking out some hezbollah fellows, show them we mea 01:55  |  ralph 23/04/07   8.   Who listens to the Nazirallahs anyway? 02:11  |  Citizen 23/04/07   9.   # Ryan U.N.resolution 1701 02:25  |  maoriboy 23/04/07   10.   Change of tactic for Israel 02:29  |  Miki 23/04/07   11.   Israel lost the War No.8 03:29  |  irreleventTOthePoint 23/04/07   12.   Offer Amira Hass and Gideon Levy instead of Kuntar. 03:53  |  Ken Jurist 23/04/07   13.   #9, Israel did not lose the war 04:06  |  Peter Burman 23/04/07   14.   #11: just repeat "Israel lost the war" 04:44  |  Jewboy 23/04/07   15.   Signs of Life - or No Talks 05:23  |  Fred McCann 23/04/07   16.   To Vik, Sherman, Absolute Sweden, Ralph and Citizen 05:38  |  Lubnani Yehudi 23/04/07   17.   #9 maoriboy 06:41  |  * BEN JABO 23/04/07   18.   #14, just repeat "Israel won the war" 07:25  |  Druid 23/04/07   19.   HE IS RIGHT, ISRAEL HAS NO CHOICE 09:03  |  indrajaya 23/04/07   20.   No war was ever won 10:08  |  Dr D 23/04/07   21.   To indrajaya #19 and to other Trigger-Happy Idiots 11:01  |  An Arab Neighbor 23/04/07   22.   # 17 Ben Jabo 11:19  |  maoriboy 23/04/07   23.   Hizballa is playing with Israel`s emotions 11:28  |  Sarah 23/04/07   24.   When are they going to allow the Red Cross to see them? 12:31  |  PETERSM 23/04/07   25.   # 21, AN ARAB NEIGHBOR 12:34  |  indrajaya 23/04/07   26.   #22 Maoriboy 20:22  |  * BEN JABO 23/04/07

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