Beirut - The release of an Iranian and a Lebanese man
convicted of the murder of four opponents of Tehran in Germany
might be a prelude for a new prisoner swap between Israel and the
Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, a western diplomatic source said
Tuesday.
Iranian Kazem Darabi was on Monday prematurely released from
prison in Germany while the fate of Lebanese Abbas Rhayel remained
unclear. But on Tuesday a high-ranking source in Lebanon told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Rhayel had also been released.
The two were sentenced in 1997 to life imprisonment for shooting
to death four Iranians at a Greek restaurant called Mykonos in
Berlin, Germany in September 1992.
Federal prosecutors in the southern German city of Karlsruhe
announced two months ago that the men would be paroled and later said
this would happen by December 24.
The court that convicted them said they were leaders of a gang
setup by the Iranian Islamist authorities to kill the leaders of the
opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.
A top Lebanese security source on Tuesday told dpa that Rhayel had
entered Lebanese territory at dawn on December 7.
'The Lebanese authorities were informed about his arrival by the
German authorities and that he was paroled along with Darabi,' the
source, who requested anonymity, said.
A western diplomatic source in Beirut told dpa that the decision
to release the two men was linked to the ongoing negotiations to
achieve the 'second phase' of a German-mediated prisoners' swap
between Israel and Hezbollah.
'This step is a prelude to for a new prisoner swap but bigger than
the one we witnessed on October 15,' the diplomat said.
On October 15, Hezbollah handed over the remains of Gabriel Dwait,
an Ethiopian immigrant who drowned in January 2005. A Lebanese
source said his body had washed up on the Lebanese coast and handed
over to Hezbollah by the fishermen who found it.
Israel freed prisoner Hassan Naim Akeel, a Hezbollah fighter
captured in the 2006 war, and handed over the bodies of Ali Wizwaz
and Mohammed Damashqiah, who had apparently been taken to Israel
after they died in the fighting in Lebanon in July 2006.
At the time a statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert's office said the swap was 'part of the framework of
negotiations to return' the two captured Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev
and Ehud Goldwasser.
The two were captured by Hezbollah during a cross-border attack on
July 12, 2006, which later led to 33-days of Israeli war on Lebanon.
The diplomatic source said the swap on October 15 was a
move which can be described as a 'confidence-building process' but
noted that Hezbollah had not yet given Israel any information about
the status of the two soldiers.
A United Nations-appointed mediator, believed to be a German
intelligence officer, is working on a deal to get the soldiers
exchanged for Lebanese and other prisoners. There has been no word on
whether they are alive and, if so, on their condition.
The diplomatic source stressed that the swap in October came
four days after Germany said it would grant early release the Darabi
and Rhayel.
'Now they are released so we can expect something ... a bigger
swap to take place, especially that the German mediator has been
shuttling between Israel and Lebanon in the past two weeks,' the
diplomat added.
Unconfirmed reports in October said the two captured Israeli
soldiers were handed to Iran by Hezbollah in 2006.
'If these reports are true, then the release of the Iranian and
the Lebanese from Germany, would push forward the ongoing
negotiations between Hezbollah and Israel, through the Germans,' the
Lebanese security source told dpa.
Hezbollah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in a speech a day after
the 'limited swap' took place vowed that the second phase of the swap
would be established soon.
'Since we have a major Muslim feast coming up, Adha (Sacrifice)
feast, which marks the end of the Mecca Pilgrimage, ... there might
be a chance that a swap will be achieved before or during this
holiday (December 20), if no obstacles arise,' the western diplomatic
source revealed.
Hezbollah is hoping to secure in exchange of the two Israeli
soldiers the release of all Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails
as well as some high-ranking Palestinian officials like Marwan
Bargoutti.
Israel detained three Hezbollah guerrillas during the July 2006
war. Israel has held Lebanese Samir Kontar since April 22, 1979 after
he was sentenced to a 542-year prison term. It refused to release him
during the last detainees swap on January 29, 2004.
Another Lebanese, Naseem Niser, has been detained since June 4,
2002 in Tel Mond prison in Israel and is serving a six-year prison
term. Yahia Skaff, from Menya in northern Lebanon who was detained by
Israel on March 11, 1978.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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