Failure of Agreement on Freeing 3 Soldiers in Exchange for Roumieh Inmates

In parallel with the escalation of protests by the families of the kidnapped soldiers, an agreement between the Qatari delegation and Islamic state group took place, a media report said on Monday.

The agreement was to free three of the kidnapped soldiers in return for the freedom of Islamist prisoners in Roumieh but it ended with failure due to the presence of dangerous suspects' names on the list of the Islamic State.

This agreement was revealed by MTV on Monday evening. The Qatari delegation promised the Islamic state that "it will come to them with the prisoners, but the agreement faced missteps concerning the names of the prisoners, the most prominent names being Naim Abbas and Jamal Daftardar."

Abbas and Daftardar are two leaders of the al-Qaida-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades and Lebanese prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for them on charge of participating in terrorist acts, including bombings in the southern suburbs of Beirut which killed dozens of civilians.

Jihadists from al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group engaged in bloody gunbattles with the army in the northeastern town of Arsal in early August and took with them around 35 hostages from the military and police as they withdrew from the area following a ceasefire.

The militants have executed three of them and are threatening to kill more hostages if the Lebanese government does not meet their demands.

MTV explained that "the agreement was to free three of the kidnapped soldiers in exchange for Islamist prisoners in Roumieh," noting that "the Qatari mediator left to his country" after the failure of the agreement.

There isn't any recent agreement with al-Nusra or the Islamic State, according to MTV.

A Muslim Scholars Committee delegation "communicated with both the IS and al-Nusra and had visited the parents of the kidnapped soldiers and told them that the government is lying to them about the soldiers and does not want to negotiate over them," added MTV.

Meanwhile, OTV reported: "The Islamic State sent a message to the families of the abducted soldiers, indicating that the government is lying and does not want to negotiate and resolve the fate of the soldiers.”

MTV said: "Committees from the families (of the abductees) will prepare a meeting with the leaders of the sects in order to reach the political leaders and identify who is impeding the issue of the barter.”

A leader from al-Nusra Front had told Anatolia news agency: “We rejected a condition by General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim for us to release three captives in exchange for allowing one of our fighters to receive medical treatment in Arsal.”

The parents continued protesting in the Dahr al-Baydar area on Monday urging the government to exert more efforts to release the captives.

Z.A.

Y.R.