Fabius confirms detainees are "well", Charbel's meetings in Turkey "fruitful"

Sources told LBCI on Saturday that Turkey has set a condition that Turkish hostages be released before the 11 Lebanese abductees.

Earlier in the day, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu contacted Saturday Speaker Nabih Berri  to discuss the 11 Lebanese detainees’ case. Berri stressed that it is crucial to exert more efforts in order to put an end to this issue.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius informed earlier House Speaker Nabih Berri by phone that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed to him that the 11 Lebanese abductees in Syria are all safe and sound, promising him to follow up on the issue.       

For his part and following his meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, Turkish ambassador to Lebanon Inan Ozyildiz stressed that Turkey has not forgotten the 11 Lebanese hostages in Syria, adding that his country is sparing no effort to contribute in their release. Ozyildiz stressed the necessity to make sure this case does not affect the Turkish-Lebanese bilateral relations.        

The Turkish ambassador said that the 11 men are not in Turkey; “they are in Syria and Turkey has no information on them”, he said.        

Ozyildiz hoped that the Lebanese authorities will take the necessary measures to guarantee the release of the 2 Turkish nationals who were kidnapped in Lebanon.           

Meanwhile, Minister of Interior Marwan Charbel met in Istanbul with several Turkish officials. Two topics were on the discussion agenda: the Lebanese detainees in Syria and the Kidnapped Turkish in Lebanon.      

In this context, Minister of Interior and Municipalities Marwan Charbel’s office reported that Charbel and Major General Abbas Ibrahim met with Turkish officials that are directly involved with the 11 Lebanese detainees’ case.        

The office added that the meetings were useful and productive since the Turkish officials expressed their commitment to reach a happy ending that would serve mutual interest.      

Both parties agreed on forging ahead with bilateral efforts and on meeting in the near future to discuss the results they will have achieved.

Charbel left to Turkey Saturday morning accompanied by Director General of General Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim.