Sources: Qatari Officials Ask Ibrahim to Meet them in Doha over Prisoner Exchange
General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim is expected to travel to Qatar this week after it was reported that he would visit Turkey to discuss with Qatari officials the case of Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by jihadists last year.
Security sources told al-Akhbar daily published on Monday that the officials asked Ibrahim to meet them in Doha instead.
Ibrahim, who is the official Lebanese negotiator in the case of the troops and policemen, is expected to inform the Qataris that Lebanon has completed the file on the prisoner exchange which was mediated by Doha's envoy.
The deal reportedly includes the release of 16 soldiers and policemen taken by al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front from the northeastern border town of Arsal last August in return for setting free Islamists from Lebanon's notorious main prison of Roumieh.
The Islamic State has also taken servicemen as hostages but the negotiations with the extremist group have reached a standstill over its crippling demands.
Ibrahim is expected to inform the Qatari officials that the Lebanese authorities have not backed off from the deal, the same sources told al-Akhbar last week. But the problem lies in the failure of the jihadists to settle on specific conditions in the prisoner exchange.
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