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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: August 28, 2006 |
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Germany hopes for the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah militants, a senior official said Monday, but stopped short of confirming that Berlin is negotiating for their freedom.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was in Berlin Monday for talks with German intelligence chief Ernst Uhrlau as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Asked on ZDF television why Livni was meeting Uhrlau, German deputy foreign minister Gernot Erler said the talks would include efforts to free the soldiers, whose capture triggered the recent fighting in Lebanon.
"It is well known that Germany has possibilities...to help free these captured and kidnapped Israeli soldiers," Erler said.
"There are also earlier cases and experiences that we can use, and therefore it is sensible that these three partners are available for talks with Mrs. Livni," he said.
Asked whether that meant that Germany was already actively mediating for the soldiers' release, Erler said, "There's an old rule that if you can mediate successfully, you don't make details public.
"We all hope for a success and therefore shouldn't press for every detail to be made public in advance," he said.
Germany has mediated in the Middle East in the past, and has also tried to draw Syria into efforts to resolve the current conflict.
Steinmeier canceled a trip to Damascus Aug. 15 to protest an anti-Israeli speech by Syrian President Bashar Assad, but said he was still open to talks with Syria on Lebanon.
In remarks published Monday, Steinmeier said Syria had a key role to play in disarming Hezbollah.
"Because the mountainous border between Lebanon and Syria cannot be secured militarily, we have to get the Syrians to ensure that arms for Hezbollah don't even reach the border," he was quoted as saying in the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung daily.
In 2004, German-led mediation resulted in Israel handing over more than 400 Arab prisoners and the remains of 59 guerrillas in exchange for the release of an Israeli businessman kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2000 and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers. |
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