BEIRUT — It has been more than five months since the kidnapping of Lebanese soldiers during the last Arsal battle by the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat al-Nusra on Aug. 2. Various efforts have been made by a number of different parties to free the hostages, to no avail.
However, this issue has recently witnessed three major developments, according to security sources who closely follow the matter. The first development is IS’ attempt to control additional areas in Syria’s Qalamoun region, which is adjacent to the Lebanese-Syrian border. The second development is the lack of cohesion at the level of the Kidnapped Families’ Committee. As the recent statement of the brother of one of the kidnapped said, “The people of the military committee do not represent all the people and we will not commit ourselves or acknowledge it.” The third development is the list of demands from Sheikh Wissam al-Masri, one of the negotiators who recently took part in the efforts to release the soldiers.
Masri, an imam and a preacher at Abu Anwar Mosque in the gold market in Tripoli named as a mediator by Jabhat al-Nusra in December, belongs to the Salafist movement. He is described as “moderate” and is one of the sheikhs who signed the document of understanding between Hezbollah and the Salafist movement in Lebanon in 2008. But the document was quickly frozen following harsh criticism from other Salafist parties, who described it as "a joke.”
The mediation of Masri received no encouragement from the Association of Muslim Scholars nor from Sunni political forces. A few days later, the name of a new negotiator emerged: Ahmed Fliti. Fliti is Arsal’s deputy chief of the municipality and is close to the Future Movement.