_a.jpg "Reproduction: Ahiya Raved")
Nasrallah says Israel prisoner swap talks still on
Hizbullah chief tells supporters in Beirut that negotiations are underway to liberate kidnapped Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Nasrallah stresses 'resistance has not weakened,' as crowd chants 'Death to Israel'
UN-mediated indirect talks for a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbullah are still going on, the Hizbullah's head Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday.
The secretive negotiations are designed to secure the release of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose capture in a cross-border raid on July 12 last year ignited a 34-day war between Israel and Hizbullah, in return for Lebanese and Arab prisoners.
"The captives, we are negotiating and the negotiations are underway to liberate them," Nasrallah told a large crowd attending the annual Shiite Ashura religious ceremony in Beirut's southern suburb.
Nasrallah, who had claimed the war was a divine victory for Hizbullah, reiterated that Hizbullah's will to fight Israel would never be weakened.
"I stress that the resistance is ready... And those who think that the resistance have been weakened or it's now in despair or tired, those are delusional," he said to chants of "Death to Israel".
Nasrallah announced in November that indirect talks, through a UN-appointed German negotiator, had begun to broker an exchange deal.
Very little have been heard on the talks since. Israel says the soldiers were seriously wounded when they were seized and Hizbullah has refused to say whether the men were dead or alive.
