Awad Ibrahim Returns to Beirut to Hero's Welcome, Receives Phone Call from Hariri
A Lebanese pilgrim kidnapped in Syria in May returned to Beirut from Turkey to a hero's welcome on Wednesday night, a day after his release by his abductors.
Awad Ibrahim arrived at Rafik Hariri international airport aboard a Turkish Airlines flight around 8:30 pm accompanied by two General Security and Internal Security Forces officers.
He was welcomed by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim and several other officials and family members.
Charbel told reporters at the airport that Turkish authorities were exerting all efforts in the case of the kidnapped Lebanese because “things are not that easy to resolve.”
He also thanked ex-PM Saad Hariri for his mediation although he did not specify what role the Mustaqbal movement leader had played in the case.
Scores of Ibrahim's relatives and friends also gathered outside his house in Beirut's southern suburbs, cheering him upon his arrival.
He told LBCI there that he hoped the remaining Lebanese men would be set free soon.
He also thanked the Committee of Muslim Scholars, Ibrahim, Hariri and Charbel.
Hariri's press office said the former prime minister telephoned Ibrahim upon his arrival to his house to congratulate him on his return home and hoped that the remaining Lebanese held hostage in Syria would be set free.
Ibrahim was released on Tuesday and crossed to Turkey a month after another Lebanese hostage, Hussein Ali Omar, was released by his kidnappers the same way.
The two men were among 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped by a group that claims affiliations with the rebel Free Syrian Army in the northern province of Aleppo on May 22 while on their way home from Iran.
Its leader has identified himself as Abu Ibrahim.
The pilgrim's arrival to Beirut was delayed for one day over what An Nahar daily said was a General Security request from his family for a passport photo to prepare the document that would allow him to return home.
Charbel told the newspaper that Lebanese authorities haven't stopped their negotiations with Turkish officials to secure the release of the remaining pilgrims.
However, he refused to give more details.
But Abu Ibrahim has announced that he closed the door to further releases over the alleged political and security ties of the remaining pilgrims to Hizbullah.
The abductors have asked for an apology from Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who is Syrian President Bashar Assad's ally.
The abductors have asked for an apology from Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who is Syrian President Bashar Assad's ally.
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