Israel: Hezbollah has no accurate information on Arad

Sunday July 13, 2008 11:34 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli sources reported that Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and heads of intelligence services in Israel received over the weekend a report summarizing the efforts of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party to obtain information on the missing Israeli navigator, Ron Arad.

The missing Israeli Navigator, Ron Arad

Heads of intelligence services are to discuss the report and hand their findings to the Israeli government. 

The report is part of the efforts to secure a prisoner swap deal which would see the release of the two Israeli soldiers Elad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser who were captured by Hezbollah in July 2006.

 The Israeli navigator, Arad, was missing in action after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

The report stated that Hezbollah believes that Arad is no longer among the living. The report was delivered to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and stated that “it appears that there are no scientific and unequivocal conclusions as to the fate of Ron Arad”, Israeli Ynet News reported.

Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that the report was brought to Olmert by the German mediator, Gerhard Konrad.

Haaretz added that the report lacks two major components; the fate of Arad, and why his body was not found”.

 Also, the Ynet News said that Israeli officials stated that the report is not sufficient, and that the officials added that the government would have to decide whether to proceed with the prisoner swap although the information that Hezbollah was supposed to provide was not included in the recent report.

 Israeli security officials are to discuss the report in the coming days and would then present their findings to the government. The report is to be discussed in a special session which would most likely be held after the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, returns from Paris on Tuesday.

Haaretz, reported that on Friday, Yuval Arad,  the daughter of Arad stated during a TV interview with the Israeli TV channel 10, that the Israeli government cannot declare someone dead just because it has no information on his fate”.

The daughter was several months old when her father went missing. She added that she has been told that the government is still looking for her father.

 Israel is supposed to release a report on the fate of three Iranian diplomats and one Iranian journalist who were kidnapped by allies of Israel, known as Christian Phalanges, during the first Lebanon war which took place in 1982.

During the war which started on June 6 1982, the Israeli army invaded southern Lebanon. Israel claimed that the invasion was in response to the assassination attempt which targeted Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. The Abu Nidal Organization is believed to be behind the attempt.

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