Well-informed sources told LBCI that the negotiations conducted in the case of the abducted troops are witnessing positive progress, noting however that there are still several rounds of talks to be held.
The sources added that after the Lebanese government had been informed of the proposals presented by al-Nusra Front concerning the prisoner swap deal, it expressed tendency to accept two of these proposals.
The said offers demand the exchange of prisoners held in Lebanese jails and female prisoners held in Syrian jails with the Lebanese hostages, the sources said, adding that one of the proposals require the release of 5 inmates from Lebanon and 50 female inmates from Syria for every Lebanese soldier.
In this regard, the same sources explained that the implementation of these agreements will require Syria’s approval, stating that the Director General of General Security Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim may be tasked with holding talks with the Syrian authorities over this issue.
The Islamic State and al-Nusra Front have been calling for the release a number of Islamist inmates from Roumieh prison in exchange for the Lebanese hostages, as well as other demands.
Several Lebanese troops were taken hostage when militants from Syria took over the Lebanese border town of Arsal for five days in the month of August before withdrawing toward the Syrian frontier, taking with them Lebanese soldiers and policemen as hostages. The clashes were the most dangerous spillover of violence from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
On August 28, the Islamic State posted photos and a video online depicting a militant beheading a blindfolded hostage who was identified as Lebanese Armed Forces Sergeant Ali al-Sayyed.
On August 31, Lebanon's military said an al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group released five members of the Lebanese security forces captured earlier in August in a cross-border raid.
The al-Nusra Front released on September 20 a video depicting the execution of the Lebanese soldier Mohammad Hamieh with a bullet to the head.
The video also showed Lebanese soldier Ali al-Bazzal pleading his family to act or else he would face execution.
In the same regard, Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted on September 06 a commander of the Islamic State as saying that the group had executed one of the captured Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers for trying to escape.
The captives' relatives have been staging a sit-in in Riad al-Solh Square in order to exert pressure on the politicians to hasten the negotiations to release the hostages kidnapped by militants from the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front in the border town of Arsal.
For more details, watch Bassam Abou Zeid's full report in the video above
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