Abu Ibrahim Says 'Guests' to Stay for a While, Crisis Cell Promises Positive Development

The ministerial crisis cell tasked with following up on the issue of the Lebanese abductees in Syria on Monday said it expects a positive development “in the coming days.”

“We spoke of the policy of silence and said that the event will announce itself and that happened when Hussein Omar was released and announced that the abductees are in good health,” Labor Minister Salim Jreissati, the cell’s spokesman, said after a meeting at the interior ministry’s headquarters in Sanayeh.

Omar was released on Saturday by his captors following a Turkish initiative. Upon his arrival in Beirut, Omar reassured that all the abductees were in good health and that they were being treated well.

“The committee has decided to carry on with its policy of reticence and to keep in contact with the interior minister over the developments which are positive developments,” said Jreissati.

“The interior minister is working night and day with the parties concerned in order to secure the release” of the remaining 10 pilgrims, he added.

“The negotiations are going positively and the outcome will emerge in the next few days, but we don’t have a precise number, names or timing,” Jreissati went on to say.

Meanwhile, Abu Ibrahim, the head of the group that abducted the pilgrims in the Syrian town of Aazaz, said they kidnapped the 11 men in order to “show the real face of the Syrian revolution and to explain its objectives to the Lebanese and entire world.”

“We in the Syrian revolution believe that the international community is waging a war against us and that the International Red Cross, the International Court of Justice, the Security Council and all the international organizations must clearly define their stances towards the Syrian revolution and recognize the suffering of our children, women and elderly,” Abu Ibrahim told Turkey's Anatolia news agency.

“We have released the Lebanese hostage Hussein Ali Omar at Turkey’s request, and given Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s courageous and honorable stances on the Islamic causes in Gaza, Iraq and Syria, we decided to comply with the Turkish request,” Abu Ibrahim added.

“Our guests will remain in our custody for another period of time and we have chosen the governments of Turkey, Qatar and the U.S. to negotiate about them,” he said, noting that “there is an Iranian hostage among the abductees.”

The 11 Lebanese men were kidnapped on May 22 as they entered Syria from neighboring Turkey on their way back from pilgrimage in Iran.