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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: October 22, 2006 |
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Secretary General Kofi Annan has tasked a member of Germany's secret service with securing the release of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped earlier this year by Hezbollah, a leading German weekly said Saturday.
The agent for Germany's Federal Information Agency, who was not named, has experience in mediating between the Lebanese militia and Israel and has been working at securing the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev since September, Der Spiegel said in an advance release of its Monday edition.
A spokesman for the German government declined to comment on the report.
Israel launched a 34-day war this summer after Hezbollah guerrillas entered Israel in a cross-border raid, killed three Israeli soldiers and captured Goldwasser and Regev. Their release -- which has yet to happen -- was a condition of a cease-fire resolution brokered by the United Nations.
According to the report, the German agent met with Annan in Madrid in September, before heading to the Middle East.
In a separate report, Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, in an interview with Spiegel, dismissed a report that Iran had offered $50 million to block a deal that would secure the release of another kidnapped soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, as "Zionist propaganda."
In addition, Zahar said Hamas is prepared to enter a cease-fire with Israel, but flatly refused to ever recognize the Jewish state.
"Why don't the Jews establish a state in Europe?" Spiegel quoted him as saying. |
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