[PHOTOS] Maaloula's nuns freed after negotiations

Maaloula's nuns were released on Sunday and handed over to a Lebanese General Security delegation in the Bekaa border town of Arsal.

This as the Lebanese delegation returned to the town of Arsal to follow up on the release of the nuns after media reports emerged stating the failure of negotiations at the last moment.

This comes as sources told LBCI earlier that the Maaloula's nuns were handed out in Yabroud to a security delegation that was following up on their release.

Earlier, the Syrian Al-Ikhbariya TV revealed reports stating that the Maaloula nuns will be released today (Sunday).

The nuns went missing in December after Islamist fighters took the ancient quarter of the Christian town of Maaloula north of Damascus.
   
After being held in the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Thecla in Maaloula, they were reportedly moved to the rebel-held town of Yabroud, about 20 km (13 miles) to the north, which is now the focus of a government military operation.
   
Speaking to reporters at the border, Syrian Greek Orthodox Bishop Louka al-Khoury welcomed the news. "What the Syrian army achieved in Yabroud facilitated this process," he said.
   
Shortly after the nuns disappeared, Islamist rebels said they had taken them as their "guests" and that they would release them soon.
   
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group identified the rebels who took the nuns as militants from the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.
   
The Observatory and a rebel source in the area said the release of the nuns had been agreed as part of a swap in which the government would free scores of women prisoners.
   
"The deal is for the release of 138 women from Assad's prisons," the rebel source said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
   
In December, the nuns appeared in a video obtained by Al Jazeera television, saying they were in good health, but it was not clear under what conditions the video had been filmed.
   
Syrian state television devoted significant coverage to the release on Sunday, but made no mention of any prisoner exchange agreement.

It broadcast live footage from the Lebanese border and interviews with church officials, including one who denounced the West as only believing "in the dollar".
   
A montage of Christian religious imagery including churches, a statue of the Virgin Mary and murals of Jesus was set against dramatic music and described Syria as a "cradle of the monotheistic faiths."
   
Syria's Christian minority has broadly tried to stay on the sidelines of the three-year-old-conflict, which has killed over 140,000 people and which has become increasingly sectarian.
   
But the rise of hardline Islamists among the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim opposition has alarmed many. Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has portrayed himself as a bulwark against militant and intolerant ideologies.

Positions:

This as several Lebanese leaders hailed the ongoing negotiations to release the abducted nuns and issued statements in this regard.

Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil hoped that the release of Maaloula's nuns would be completed with the release of the two Syrian abducted bishops

In turn, head of Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun wished via his twitter account that efforts  would be deployed to release the abducted bishops and the rest of kidnapped and disappeared persons in Syria.

This as Lebanese Forces MP Strida Geagea issued a statement in which she expressed her content over the release of the nuns, hoping that the abducted Syrian bishops would be released soon.

The two Syrian bishops kidnapped by gunmen on Monday April 22nd are still missing, church sources in Damascus and Aleppo said, contradicting a report that the men had been freed.    

Pope Francis urged the release of the two Aleppian bishops, 2 days after their disappearance. They have been identified as Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and Alexandria Boulos Yaziji, and Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo Yuhanna Ibrahim.