Estonian FM in Beirut Next Week to Follow-up Abduction Probe
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet will head to Beirut on Tuesday to follow-up the investigation into the abduction of seven Estonian tourists in the Bekaa valley in March.
An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday that Paet will visit Lebanon to get the latest updates on the probe into the kidnapping and the location of the abductees.
The daily noted that France is offering a diplomatic and intelligence aid to find the seven Estonians.
France's European affairs minister Laurent Wauquiez said on Thursday that his country "has assisted and is assisting Estonia with all the means we have in the Lebanon kidnapping case.”
"Lebanon authorities have done a good job investigating the case and nine people have been arrested," Wauquiez told Agence France Presse after his talks with Paet and Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.
He added that since Estonia has no embassy in Lebanon, France was providing all the necessary logistical help on the ground in Lebanon as well as in Syria.
The seven Estonian tourists, all in their 30s, were kidnapped on March 23 shortly after entering Lebanon on a bicycle tour from neighboring Syria.
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