Riad al-Asaad: Release of Remainder of Pilgrims Won’t Be Easy as Most Are Hizbullah Officials
The head of the Free Syrian Army Riad al-Asaad accused Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah of obstructing the release of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims “because he failed to perform what was asked of him,” reported Voice of Lebanon radio on Sunday.
He said: “The release of the remainder of the pilgrims will not be as easy as some believe because most of them are Hizbullah officials.”
“Instead of complying with the abductors’ demands, Nasrallah threatened the Syrian people and announced a war against them,” he continued.
“We now see Hizbullah members fighting alongside the Syrian regime against the people,” he added.
Nasrallah was demanded to apologize for a May 25 speech addressed to the kidnappers in which he said that his party would not change its position concerning the conflict in Syria, declaring: "If this kidnapping is aimed at putting pressure on our political position, it's a waste of time."
“The release of the captives requires intense negotiations, which in the end will fall in the Syrian people and revolt’s favor,” Asaad stated in what VDL said was the first indirect acknowledgement by the FSA that it is linked to the pilgrims’ abduction.
Hussein Ali Omar, one of the 11 pilgrims, was released from captivity on Saturday.
The pilgrims were initially kidnapped in Syria’s Aleppo in May as they were making their way back to Lebanon from a pilgrimage in Iran.
Commenting in Hassan al-Meqdad’s kidnapping, Asaad stressed that the FSA has no information on him.
He suspected that the Syrian regime may have been behind the abduction in order to tarnish the image of the FSA and create strife in Lebanon “through Hizbullah’s cooperation.”
He explained that al-Meqdad clan’s military wing’s swift retaliation to the abduction of their family member in Syria is evidence of this claim.
The clan responded by kidnapping several Syrian nationals in Lebanon.
It released a few of them on Saturday as a goodwill gesture to Omar’s release.
Asaad called on the Meqdad clan to exercise restraint, release the remaining captives in its custody, and avoid “falling in the Syrian regime’s schemes.”
“The regime will not rest until strife is created in Lebanon,” stressed the FSA head.
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