Israel is facing mounting pressure from friendly governments in the West to free an extremist Moslem cleric its forces captured in Lebanon two years ago.
Their belief is that the release of Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid would bring about the freedom of Western hostages long held by Shi’ite groups in Lebanon.
Obeid, who was seized by Israeli commandos in July 1989, was spiritual mentor of a faction of Hezbollah, the pro-Iranian Moslem fundamentalist movement that has waged guerrilla warfare against Israeli forces and their allies in southern Lebanon for years. Groups associated with Hezbollah are believed to be holding many of the Western hostages.
British Prime Minister John Major appealed directly for Obeid’s release last week when he received Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir at No. 10 Downing Street.
Major asked Israel’s help after Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velyati hinted strongly that the release of 12 Western hostages, including three Britons, could be achieved if the West pressed Israel to free Sheik Obeid and several hundred other Lebanese prisoners it holds.
A senior Israeli official here said Israel would be happy to help, but insists first that seven of its own soldiers, who are prisoners of war in Arab hands, are released and sent home.
Israeli officials fear Western leaders will pressure the Jewish state to release Obeid unconditionally, a request Israel cannot accept.
Conservative M.P. Robert Adley has already written to the Israeli ambassador, Yoav Biran, that the release of the three British hostages-Terry Waite, John McCarthy and Jackie Mann “is in some degree dependent upon the attitude of your government” toward Sheik Obeid and “other Hezbollah hostages held in Israel.”
The Israeli POWs are Yehuda Katz, Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman, Joseph Fink, Rachamim Alsheikh, Samir Assad and Ron Arad. Fink, 26, who was born in Manchester, England, and Alsheikh, 25, have been prisoners of Hezbollah since February 1986.
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