July 30, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 19,1423

BEIRUT, July 29: The Hezbollah said on Monday it was ready to discuss with international mediators, not through the media, any serious offer to exchange prisoners with Israel.

“Recently, the press broached a project to free an Israeli colonel in exchange for Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners, but it has not been proposed by the negotiators,” said Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

“Negotiating through the media is not serious,” Nasrallah said, who was speaking at a ceremony to mark the 13th anniversary of Israel’s imprisonment of Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, a Shiite cleric snatched from south Lebanon.

Sheikh Nasrallah said he has stood up to international pressure to release any information on the condition of Israelis imprisoned by Hezbollah to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“America put pressure on Europe, which in turn put pressure on us, threatening to rank Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations,” he said.

Israeli military radio said earlier this month an accord on an exchange of prisoners was on the verge of being concluded.

The radio said the deal would include the release of 100 Palestinians, including Marwan Barghuti who is facing trial in Israel over attacks on Israelis.

Lebanese prisoners would also be freed and the bodies of dozens of Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli operations would be returned to Lebanon, it said.

In exchange, Israel would win the release of businessman and reservist colonel Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was kidnapped by Hezbollah, as well as the bodies of three soldiers seized by the militia and believed to be dead, the radio added.—AFP