Salam Urges Qatar's Emir to Revive Mediation in Hostage Crisis

Prime Minister Tammam Salam urged the Qatari emir on Tuesday to revive his country's mediation in negotiations aimed at releasing Lebanese servicemen taken hostages by jihadists in the summer, said the state-run National News Agency.

Salam telephoned Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid al-Thani to urge him to help “end the suffering of the families” of the soldiers and policemen who were taken captive by al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group when they overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August, said NNA.

The Emir expressed his “great interest in assisting Lebanon and the Lebanese in this ordeal.”

He informed Salam that he will give “immediate orders” to the officials tasked with dealing with the case to “make the necessary contacts,” the agency added.

The prime minister, who is currently on an official visit to Brussels, has said that General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim was solely in charge of negotiations aimed at securing the release of the hostages.

The decision to directly negotiate with the militants goes back to the procrastination of the Qatari mediator, Ahmed al-Khatib, the PM said in remarks published on Monday.

But Salam stressed that the envoy's mediation has not stopped and that he was working in parallel with the efforts exerted by the Lebanese authorities to free the captives.

“The government will not give up its principles in the negotiations,” he said in Brussels on Tuesday.

“We will not be subjected to extortion. No one blackmails 4 million Lebanese and the army,” he added.

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