Sources reported to LBCI on Saturday that General Security Chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim was tasked by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, and will be heading today to Qatar in a bid to find a solution for case of Maaloula's kidnapped nuns.
The sources added that Major General Ibrahim contacted the AL-Jazeera TV station to know the source of the video that it aired Friday showing the nuns of Syria’s Maaloula.
A Syrian rebel group calling itself "Free Qalamoun" claimed on Friday, December 06, the kidnapping of 12 nuns and said it wants to trade them for a thousand female detainees held by the government.
Rebel spokesman Mohannad Abu al-Fidaa said the nuns were safe but "will not be released until several demands have been implemented, most importantly, the release of 1,000 Syrian women held in regime prisons".
Syria's Christian minority have generally tried to stay on the sidelines of the sectarian conflict pitting majority Sunni Muslims against the Alawite minority. Many Christians fear the rise of hardline Islamist groups.
Islamist fighters who captured the Christian village of Maaloula north of Damascus moved the nuns from the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Thecla to the nearby town of Yabrud on Monday, according to the Vatican envoy to Syria, Mario Zenari.