German secret service mediating between Israel and Hizbollah: report
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Oct 21, IRNA
Germany-Hizbollah-Israel
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is reportedly using an agent of Germany's BND foreign intelligence service as a mediator in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Islamic resistance Hizbollah, the online site of Der Spiegel news magazine said Saturday.
The German spy is secretly sounding out since September the conditions for a possible prisoner exchange between the illegal Jewish state and Hizbollah.
Annan met the BND operative who was involved in past prisoner swaps between Israel and Hizbollah, in early September in Madrid, where the UN chief briefed the German agent on this sensitive mission.
Despite several rounds of negotiations, Israel and Hizbollah are still far apart in securing a prisoner deal.
BND head Ernst Uhrlau visited Beirut early last month in a bid to set the stage for a likely exchange of prisoners.
Germany played a lead role in a prisoner swap in the January 2004 agreement which saw Israel exchange some 429 Arab prisoners for the release of an Israeli businessman captured by Hizbollah and the remains of three soldiers.
OT/2322/1412
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