A written document for a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Lebanon’s Hizbullah has been drafted and will be signed by both sides next Sunday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The Israeli government will convene Sunday morning to approve the draft. Afterward, the German mediator Gerhard Schroeder (or one of his team members) will arrive in Jerusalem to have the Israeli ministers sign the document. He will immediately fly to Beirut, where he will have a Hizbullah representative sign it too, Haaretz reported.
Not all the clauses have yet been revealed to the media. The main elements, however, will include the return of the two Israeli soldiers, who were kidnapped by Hizbullah on July 12 2006. Israel for its part will release five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Quntar, who was arrested in 1979 after killing three members of an Israeli family and a policeman in a terror attack. Israel will also return the bodies of Hizbullah fighters.
In the past few days, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has demonstrated some hesitation with regard to the deal. In return, Hizbullah has threatened to increase its demands in case the deal is not approved by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday.
Quntar is considered the last, and most important, bargaining chip in a future deal for the return of Ron Arad, an Israeli pilot who was captured in 1986.
As part of the current deal, Hizbullah is supposed to provide a report, detailing what efforts were taken over the years to find out what happened to Arad and where he is being held.