JERUSALEM, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Israel and Hezbollah earlier this month came together for a prisoner exchange brokered by a German intelligence official known as "Mr. Hezbollah."
The deal raises hopes the two Israeli soldiers captured by the Shiite militia in July 2006 (a move that sparked Israel’s march into Lebanon) can be released as well, German news magazine Der Spiegel says in its latest issue. Hezbollah handed Israel the remains of an Ethiopian Jew and a 1988-dated letter from missing pilot Ron Arad, who disappeared in 1986. In return, Hezbollah received a previously imprisoned Hezbollah fighter and the remains of two more militiamen.
"For the first time since last summer, there is movement in one of the key disputes in the Middle East conflict," the magazine writes. "Solving the prisoner issue is considered to be a precondition for a further detente that might eventually lead to a peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon."
Yet officials in Jerusalem are careful:
"We aren't any closer to a final deal," Israel’s chief negotiator on the prisoner issue, Ofer Dekel, told Der Spiegel.
The exchange, which is poised to strengthen crisis-ridden Israeli President Ehud Olmert, was organized by the United Nations and prepared by a senior official from Germany’s BND intelligence service known as "Mr. Hezbollah," a man who has dealt with Shiite leader Hassan Nasrallah on previous occasions.
Stemming from Berlin and an expert in Arab culture, Mr. Hezbollah was the BND’s man in Beirut and speaks fluent Arabic, Der Spiegel said.
