Haaretz
Hezbollah expected to report Arad died in Lebanon over a decade ago
By Amos Harel, Yoav Stern and Yossi Melman
Israel is waiting for a report from Hezbollah regarding the Lebanese Shi'ite organization's efforts to locate missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, defense officials said on Friday.
The officials told Haaretz that the German mediator charged with overseeing the negotiations for a prisoner swap deal was given initial information regarding the content of the report, and has updated Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel on the matter.
In the report, which is part of a broader prisoner exchange deal mediated by the United Nations, Hezbollah is expected to say that it did not manage to locate Arad, who was shot down near Sidon in 1986, but details its activities and concludes that the navigator died in Lebanon over a decade ago.
The report will be given to Ofer Dekel, the Israeli official charged with negotiating the release of IDF soldiers held by Hezbollah and Hamas, as part of the deal for the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev who were abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah on July 12, 2006.
The prisoner exchange with Hezbollah will most likely take place in a week to 10 days, according to a security source. Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah stated in a speech in Beirut this week that the deal is expected to be completed on July 15.
Dekel, in Europe over the last two days, was expected on Thursday to sign the deal, entitled "Humanitarian Agreement," with Hezbollah. Under the deal, Goldwasser and Regev will be returned to Israel through the Rosh Hanikra border crossing, and in exchange Israel will release Samir Kuntar held for the 1979 murder of Israeli civilians in Nahariya, four Hezbollah fighters captured during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and the remains of dozens of Lebanese burried in Israel.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that according to intelligence agencies estimates, the two soldiers are dead.
Dekel was due back in Israel early Friday. Even though the precise destination of his visit was not disclosed, Germany has been instrumental in mediating between Israel and Hezbollah.
In return for the report on Arad, Dekel handed the German negotiators a report focusing on the fate of four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in July 1982, which will be passed on to Hezbollah and probably also Iran.
The Hezbollah report was first examined by the German chief mediator, Gerhard Konrad, and Israeli security sources said that he is very well versed in the details of the case, and therefore it would not be difficult for him to determine whether Hezbollah met the demands set in the latest agreement.
Senior intelligence officials who have worked on the Arad case for years told Haaretz that they estimate that the Hezbollah report will not include any surprises for Israel.
The Hezbollah version has been compared with that of Mustafa Dirani, who Israel abducted in 1994. Dirani told Shin Bet investigators that Arad disappeared in the village of Nabi Sheit in southern Lebanon in May 1988, which was taken by other Shi'ite groups linked with Iran.
Hezbollah claims that Arad died soon after, but Israeli intelligence holds different versions to be true: Some contend that Arad died in the early 1990s, others during the mid 1990s and some maintain that there is no conclusive proof that he is dead.
The report on the Iranian diplomats that Israel passed on to Hezbollah states that they were murdered by Phalangists in Lebanon, when they were were arrested at a road block controlled by the Christian militia. The gunmen were members of a group commanded by Eli Hubeika, a senior Phalangist figure who was himself murdered six and a half years ago.
Hezbollah expected to report Arad died in Lebanon over a decade ago
By Amos Harel, Yoav Stern and Yossi Melman
Israel is waiting for a report from Hezbollah regarding the Lebanese Shi'ite organization's efforts to locate missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, defense officials said on Friday.
The officials told Haaretz that the German mediator charged with overseeing the negotiations for a prisoner swap deal was given initial information regarding the content of the report, and has updated Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel on the matter.
In the report, which is part of a broader prisoner exchange deal mediated by the United Nations, Hezbollah is expected to say that it did not manage to locate Arad, who was shot down near Sidon in 1986, but details its activities and concludes that the navigator died in Lebanon over a decade ago.
The report will be given to Ofer Dekel, the Israeli official charged with negotiating the release of IDF soldiers held by Hezbollah and Hamas, as part of the deal for the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev who were abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah on July 12, 2006.
The prisoner exchange with Hezbollah will most likely take place in a week to 10 days, according to a security source. Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah stated in a speech in Beirut this week that the deal is expected to be completed on July 15.
Dekel, in Europe over the last two days, was expected on Thursday to sign the deal, entitled "Humanitarian Agreement," with Hezbollah. Under the deal, Goldwasser and Regev will be returned to Israel through the Rosh Hanikra border crossing, and in exchange Israel will release Samir Kuntar held for the 1979 murder of Israeli civilians in Nahariya, four Hezbollah fighters captured during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and the remains of dozens of Lebanese burried in Israel.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that according to intelligence agencies estimates, the two soldiers are dead.
Dekel was due back in Israel early Friday. Even though the precise destination of his visit was not disclosed, Germany has been instrumental in mediating between Israel and Hezbollah.
In return for the report on Arad, Dekel handed the German negotiators a report focusing on the fate of four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in July 1982, which will be passed on to Hezbollah and probably also Iran.
The Hezbollah report was first examined by the German chief mediator, Gerhard Konrad, and Israeli security sources said that he is very well versed in the details of the case, and therefore it would not be difficult for him to determine whether Hezbollah met the demands set in the latest agreement.
Senior intelligence officials who have worked on the Arad case for years told Haaretz that they estimate that the Hezbollah report will not include any surprises for Israel.
The Hezbollah version has been compared with that of Mustafa Dirani, who Israel abducted in 1994. Dirani told Shin Bet investigators that Arad disappeared in the village of Nabi Sheit in southern Lebanon in May 1988, which was taken by other Shi'ite groups linked with Iran.
Hezbollah claims that Arad died soon after, but Israeli intelligence holds different versions to be true: Some contend that Arad died in the early 1990s, others during the mid 1990s and some maintain that there is no conclusive proof that he is dead.
The report on the Iranian diplomats that Israel passed on to Hezbollah states that they were murdered by Phalangists in Lebanon, when they were were arrested at a road block controlled by the Christian militia. The gunmen were members of a group commanded by Eli Hubeika, a senior Phalangist figure who was himself murdered six and a half years ago.
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