Charbel from Serail: Turkey’s meeting very productive

34^min

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel declared on Wednesday that he is very pleased with his meetings in Turkey, hoping that this issue will come to a happy ending soon.

During a press conference at the Serail, Charbel stressed that the Lebanese hostages are not on the Turkish territory, pointing that “if they were in Turkey, he would have brought them with him”.

Minister Charbel informed PM Najib Mikati of the results of his meetings, in the presence of Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil.

Earlier in the day, Charbel and the Lebanese delegation held meetings with Turkish officials discussing the case of the Lebanese hostages in Syria, away from the media. A second meeting for Charbel and Maj. Gen. Ibrahim with Turkish official in Ankara was scheduled at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Charbel headed for Turkey earlier with the released hostage and the Turkish Ambassador.

In this context, Sheikh Bilal Dekamk told LBCI that positive signs appear in the case of the Lebanese hostages in Syria, adding that three of them will be released within the next few days.

On Tuesday, after a meeting between Major General Abbas Ibrahim and the Mokdad Clan, the Director General of Public Security Major General Abbas Ibrahim received the Turkish detainee Tekken Tufan.

The Turkish released detainee was handed over to the Turkish ambassador in Lebanon Inan Ozyildiz at the General Security building.

Upon his arrival to the headquarters of the General Security, General Abbas Ibrahim stated that Lebanon will not reciprocate the Turkish kidnapped with the Lebanese detainees noting that it's the state's duty to release all detainees and the release of the Turkish hostage will not accelerate or delay this process.

For his part, the Minister of Interior Marwan Charbel considered that the last Cabinet meeting in Baabda had a great influence on this release.

Charbel pointed out that the Lebanese state pledged to return all the abducted Lebanese in Syria.

In his first speech after his release, Tekken Tufan stated that he will be leaving at dawn to his hometown Marmaris, Turkey. He also hoped that all the Lebanese detainees would be released soon, and thanked all those who contributed in his release, especially the Lebanese government and the security forces, adding that he had been treated in a very good way by Mokdad's.

Later at night, the PM Najib Mikati received a call from his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, thanking him for the release of the Turkish citizen.
As for the case of the Lebanese detainees in Syria, Mikati hoped that efforts would be exerted in order to release them and had a phone call from the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu for the same reason.

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