Voice recording for abductees within hours, Dahiyeh residents wait in anticipation

The Ambassador of the International Organization for Human Rights to Lebanon Ali Aqil Khalil announced Sunday that a voice recording will be broadcast within hours. In the recording, the Lebanese abductees will reassure their parents that they are in good health, Ali said. 

Earlier on Sunday, one of the spokespersons for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Sunday that the negotiations on the abducted Lebanese men are still ongoing, adding that Turkey prefers to keep the issue away from the media in order to ensure the success of the negotiations.    

The spokesperson told LBCI that until Saturday evening, the abductees had not crossed the Turkish border.        

On the other hand, the parents of the abductees assure that, according to their security and political sources, the Lebanese hostages are in Turkey, not in Syria.        

Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zoaby, head of the Free People of Syria group, who played the role of the mediator in the issue of the Lebanese men abducted in Aleppo, told LBCI on Sunday that the abductees are safe and sound and that until now, the abductors have no demand; “There are some arrangements that require a little patience and the handing over will take place within the next few hours”.            

For his part, the President of the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Nabil al-Halabi said that one of the obstacles that prevented the release of the Lebanese hostages in Syria is the fact that some Syrian opposition members called for the release of Abbas Chouaib and the 10 other kidnapped. Chouaib is wanted by the rebels for training “Shabbiha” members.     

Halabi assured that the kidnappers are not members of the Syrian opposition, rather a group of smugglers of whom the Free Syrian Army takes advantage, like in all armed conflicts, to smuggle arms to the Syrian territory.           

Halabi told Acharq al Awsat newspaper that, from the beginning, the abductors wanted money in return for their release.                    

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu held a small meeting with a number of Syrian opposition figures to discuss this issue. The meeting will also touch on the massacre that occurred in the Syrian town of Houla.