The release this week of the last three American hostages held by Shi’ite groups in Lebanon has raised hopes that an Israeli air force navigator taken prisoner there may soon come home as well.
The last American hostage was released Wednesday, when kidnappers freed Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson.
Earlier in the week, hostage-takers set free Joseph Cicippio and Alann Steen.
Those releases followed the South Lebanon Army’s move Sunday, at Israel’s prodding, to free 25 Lebanese Shi’ites imprisoned in a detention facility in the Israeli-controlled border security zone.
The rapid progression of events indicated that the final stages may have been reached in a comprehensive deal, brokered by the United Nations, to swap Shi’ite prisoners held by Israel for Western hostages and Israeli military personnel missing in action in Lebanon.
Israeli negotiators, led by Uri Lubrani of the Defense Ministry and attorney Uri Slonim, have been circumspect in their public comments. But there is reason to believe their efforts will be successfully concluded very shortly.
Lubrani told BBC-TV in London that he had grounds for hoping the deal could be completed by Christmas.
The Israelis are relying strongly on the outgoing U.N. secretary-general, Javier Perez de Cuellar who has vowed to achieve a general hostage release, including Israelis, before he leaves office at the end of the year.
The SLA’s release Sunday of the 25 Shi’ite prisoners was done at the request of Giandomenico Picco, the secretary-general’s special envoy, who has played an instrumental role in securing the hostages’ freedom.
SHEIK IS THE TRUMP CARD
Defense Minister Moshe Arens made clear Wednesday that there was no chance Israel would free Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid before the return of Israel air force navigator Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and is the only missing Israeli believed to be alive.
Obeid, a religious leader of the Moslem fundamentalist Hezbollah, was seized by Israeli commandos from his home in southern Lebanon in 1989. He is considered Israel’s trump card for the return of Arad and the bodies of five other Israeli MIAs.
Shi’ite sources in Lebanon confirmed earlier this week that the Israelis had sent a videotape of Obeid in captivity, an indication that his release may be imminent.
Israel is also expected to release an additional 200 Shi’ite prisoners in the exchange.
But Lubrani stressed that Israel must have positive information about the fate of three other Israel Defense Force soldiers missing since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
The soldiers, Yehuda Katz, Zecharia Baumel and Zvi Feldman, are presumed dead. But Israel wants confirmation and their bodies returned.
Israel released 66 Moslem prisoners earlier this year after receiving confirmation of the deaths of MIAs Yossi Fink and Rachamim Al-sheikh. But only the body of an Israeli Druse soldier, Samir Assad, has been returned.
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