Captive's mother to Blair: Take me to Beirut
Kidnapped soldiers' families meet with British prime minister in Jerusalem. Miki, Ehud Goldwasser's mother, asks Blair to take her with him to Lebanon 'in order to seek, as mother, sign of life from sons.' Blair also meets with Ministers Peretz and Livni
"As a mother, I want to seek a sight of life," she explained.
"I expressed my willingness to meet with Mr. Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, in a bid to reach anyone who will be ready to hear me. Now all is left is to wait and see what Blair can do," Goldwasser said at the end of the meeting.
The families asked Blair to insist on the release of their sons "as you insisted on the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon."
At the end of the meeting, Goldwasser added: "The meeting was very nice and pleasant, with a lot of willingness on Blair's part to operate for us and raise our matter. We stressed the need to implement Resolution 1701, which we believe has not been realized. He promised to work for us on all channels – both in Gaza and in Lebanon."
Noam, the father of Corporal Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, said: "We thanked Blair for agreeing to meet us. We raised the points we wanted to stress, and particularly the fact that after so many days in captivity we have no sign of life from the sons. This is a humanitarian point, and we made it clear to him that we view this issue as a top priority. He agreed with us and promised to exert pressure wherever he can."
Blair's meeting with family members (Photo: Flash 90)
"We told the British prime minister that we are two weeks ahead of Rosh Hashana and the Ramadan fast, and this is an excellent opportunity for a prisoner exchange with the Lebanese and the Palestinians," Shalit added.
"We know that in the Arab world during Ramadan prisoners are freed in order to spend the holiday with their family members. We hope that our sons will spend the upcoming holidays with us," he said.
'UK backs demand to release captives'
Benny, Eldad Regev's brother: "Every day is critical from our point of view. The British prime minister stressed that Resolution 1701 fully binds both sides – meaning a return of the captives. This is a demand which Britain backs."
"We understood that Blair doubts whether a possibility of a truce without their return home is possible. He promised that he would deal with this issue in his talks in Syria, in Lebanon and also in Ramallah. We certainly hope that he will take the time and exert his power and influence in order to promote the sons' release," he said.
Earlier Sunday, the British prime minister met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Blair asked to learn about Israel's diplomatic moves after the war in Lebanon.
On Sunday afternoon, Blair is scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, but not with political elements from the ruling party Hamas.
On Saturday, the British prime minister met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. After shelving the realignment plan, Olmert noted that he was sticking to the Road Map and said that he would meet with Abbas without any preconditions and before Gilad Shalit's release.
"I have always expressed my desire and agreed to meet with Abu Mazen (Abbas), and also now I have no conditions for that. I can assume that a meeting with Abbas would maybe even benefit this issue of Gilad Shalit. Corporal Shalit is not being held by him and he would definitely want to release him," Olmert said.
The two officials also discussed Gilad Shalit's release, the war in Lebanon and the Iranian nuclear issue.
"It is very important that we see what we can do to reenergize this process," Blair said. "It's very easy to be pessimistic, but I do believe that, with the right will, things can be done."
On Sunday morning, the al-Hayat newspaper reported that the Egyptian mediation efforts to reach a deal for Shalit's release have reached a dead end. According to the report, the Egyptian security delegation, which was closely supervising the negotiations with the Palestinian side from Gaza, surprisingly left the area on Thursday.
The Egyptians' refusal came after Israel went back on its plan to provide guarantees which would help in convincing the Palestinians to hand Shalit over to the Egyptians as a deposit and ahead of the release of about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
