Jumblat Urges 'Unconditional' Swap as Muslim Scholars Seek Pledge on Halting Executions

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat reiterated Tuesday from the Riad al-Solh Square his support for a swap deal in the case of the captive servicemen who are being held by jihadist groups.

“My stance is clear and it's similar to that of (Speaker) Nabih Berri -- I support an unconditional swap deal,” Jumblat said after a brief meeting with the families of the hostage troops and policemen in Riad al-Solh.

Jumblat also announced that he is in favor of tasking the Muslim Scholars Committee with negotiating a swap deal with the kidnappers.

“We have hope in God and in MP Jumblat, who has promised us to follow up on the case with the needed speed in order to safeguard the lives of the servicemen,” the families said after meeting the PSP leader.

“Jumblat has not rejected any negotiator and he was modest enough to visit us in person in order to feel our pain on the ground,” one of the relatives said.

Following a meeting with the Muslim Scholars Committee in Clemenceau, Jumblat announced that he “put the Scholars Committee in the picture of the efforts of the (ministerial) crisis cell.”

The PSP leader also noted that he prefers that the Committee obtain an official authorization from the government before embarking on any new mediation effort.

“In the past, (Committee chief) Sheikh (Salem) al-Rafehi was almost killed while performing his mission and we must not forget this,” Jumblat added.

“The scholars told us that there are abnormal cases of torturing (Islamist) prisoners and this is unacceptable. We reject torture in Lebanese prisons,” Jumblat went on to say.

Earlier on Tuesday, al-Rafehi met with Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and urged “the militants in Qalamun's mountains to give the Muslim Scholars Committee a pledge that they will not kill any serviceman from now on.”

In response to a question, the cleric noted that the Committee will not talk to the kidnappers before obtaining a mandate from the Lebanese state.

“In our meetings with (General Security chief) Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and the interior minister, we sensed that the state is willing to make a swap deal,” al-Rafehi added.

“We sensed seriousness in the issue of releasing some detainees, but we have not received a pledge that” we will be officially mandated, the cleric went on to say.

Earlier on Tuesday, a delegation from the Muslim Scholars Committee held talks with Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi.

“A lot of the (Islamist) detainees (in Lebanese prisons) have suffered major injustice, and had the youths been released from the very beginning, we would not have reached such developments in the case of” the abducted servicemen, al-Rafehi said after the meeting.

He said talks focused on “the arbitrary arrest of Sunni youths, the thing that pushes some of them to extremism and to losing confidence in the state.”

“They are facing insults in prisons and they have the impression that there is discrimination against them. There must be justice and this thing must be the demand of all politicians, so that our sons can feel that they are the sons of this country,” Rafehi added.

He claimed that the northeastern border town of Arsal is “besieged nowadays due to the procrastination in the case of the abductees.”

“The justice minister told us that (Abu Ali) al-Shishani's wife (Ola al-Oqaili) is not facing any charges and that she will be referred to the General Security before being released a few hours later,” Rafehi revealed.

Referring to another detained woman, the divorcee of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdad, the cleric added: “If it turns out that the sister Saja (al-Dulaimi) is not involved in any offenses, who will bear the responsibility of the blood of the (executed) soldier Ali al-Bazzal?”

“It will be those who took the decision to arrest her without evidence and without asking the judicial authority,” he went on to say.

“Upon the release of al-Oqaili and al-Dulaimi, we would exert strenuous efforts to obtain a pledge from the Qalamun-based armed groups that they will totally stop the executions,” Rafehi added.

The extremist al-Nusra Front and Islamic State groups have so far executed four captive servicemen while around 27 troops and policemen are still in their custody. The servicemen were taken hostage during deadly clashes with the Lebanese army in and around Arsal in early August.

Following negotiations involving several parties, Qatar announced Monday that its mediator Ahmed al-Khatib was ending his endeavor, shortly after al-Nusra announced the execution of Ali al-Bazzal.

Y.R.