Charbel to families of detainees in Aazaz: There are difficulties, but hope remains

The Sanayeh road in Beirut was reopened after it was blocked by families of the Lebanese detainees in Syria's Aazaz.                   

In this context, the released Awad Ibrahim said to LBCI that the families were promised that 4 detainees would be released last Thursday, but the recordings of Al-Akhbar newspaper delayed this process.                           

Speaking on behalf of the delegation, Adham Zgheib said that their objective lies solely in the release of their relatives. "There are some honest parties working on the case, however there are others who are not. We ask those who can help to come to our aid and those who cannot to keep a distance.Our cause is not political, it is humanitarian," he stressed.

Minister Marwan Charbel met with the delegation and said that there are difficulties, however added that hope remains. "Issues cannot be solved through coercion," he said.

On a separate note the Minister said that efforts were also being exerted to solve the crisis in Tripoli, on the backdrop of the Talkalakh incidents.

Earlier, the families held a sit-in before the Ministry of Interior demanding that the government deploy more efforts in order to accelerate the release of their kinsmen.                                     

In this framework, Hajj Mohammad Saleh told LBCI that the promises of politicians were not sincere, and asked the media to refrain from transforming the issue of the abductees into a political, internal issue.                                                

Hajj Saleh hoped from Former PM Saad Hariri and MP Okab Sakr to keep on following up this issue and assured that detainees were originally pilgrims.                                                                        

The families said that they will be taking escalatory measures until all the remaining abductees are released.                                               

The eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped on their way back from Iran by insurgents hoping to use them for a prisoner swap on the 20th of May.  Only two have so far been released.