BEIRUT: General Security head Brig. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said Friday positive steps have been taken to secure the release of nine Lebanese hostages held in Syria, as Turkey’s ambassador voiced anger at protest actions by relatives of the captives.
“Positive steps have been taken in the past few hours. ... The issue is on the right track, but the end results are what matters most,” Ibrahim told reporters while touring the Masnaa border crossing.
Caretaker Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi said he was optimistic that the hostages would be released soon, bringing the yearlong saga to a close.
“There is a great probability, more so now than at any other time, that the kidnapped will be released soon,” Qortbawi told The Daily Star after a meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail.
As Ibrahim was set to begin negotiating with the Syrian government over the kidnappers’ demands, the families of the hostages resumed their protests against Turkish establishments, seemingly angered by criticism voiced by Ankara’s ambassador to Lebanon.
They had said Thursday that they would cease targeting such establishments. Ambassador Inan Ozyildiz, in an interview in An-Nahar, said the protests had deviated from their main objective, and had gone too far: “Such behavior is crossing the line whether [they protest] outside Turkish Airlines or outside UNIFIL’s Turkish contingent, working since 2007 for the purpose of peacekeeping in Lebanon.”
The local paper also quoted him as saying he had voiced his concerns to caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour that the sit-ins had strayed from the protesters’ main objective.
The families of the hostages lashed out at the ambassador for criticizing their protests and described his comments as “disrespectful of the Lebanese state.” The families held a sit-in outside the Beirut offices of the Turkish company Pegasus Airlines in response to Ozyildiz’s remarks.
A manager at Pegasus Airlines told The Daily Star that employees temporarily relocated to a different branch in the city because of the protest.

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11/05/2013
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