Israel, Hezbollah Sign Prisoner Swap Deal
By VOA News
07 July 2008
Israel on Monday signed an agreement to swap prisoners with the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office says the deal was signed in the presence of a United Nations official.
The Israeli government said implementation of the deal still depends on further steps being carried out.
The move came as Israeli negotiator, Ofer Dekel traveled to Europe to receive a Hezbollah report from a U.N.-appointed mediator on Israeli airman Ron Arad. He has been missing since 1986, when his plane was shot down over Lebanon.
In return, Israel is to provide information on four Iranians - three diplomats and a photographer - who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982.
The reports are part of a larger prisoner swap, in which Israel is to release five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of Hezbollah fighters in exchange for two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid.
Israel's prime minister has said he believes the soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev - are dead. But Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he has not handed over any information about the fate of the two soldiers and called Mr. Olmert's declaration "mere speculation."
Both sides say the exchange is likely to take place in the middle of next week.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials say the army is set to exhume the bodies of Hezbollah fighters buried in Israel as part of the exchange deal.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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