Sat October 11, 2003
SIDON, Lebanon (Reuters) - Iran's ambassador to Lebanon said on Saturday Tehran had no information on a missing Israeli airman whose fate is overshadowing prisoner exchange talks between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah. Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbollah has been negotiating with Israel through German mediators for several months on exchange of four Israeli captives for some 15 Lebanese, dozens of Arabs and hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Hizbollah said on Friday a deal could be concluded soon, but the fate of an Israeli airforce navigator, Ron Arad, shot down over Lebanon in 1986, has cast a shadow over the talks.
Hizbollah denies knowledge of Arad's whereabouts, but Israel believes he is being held in Iran.
"The Israeli enemy is accustomed always to making such false accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran," Massoud Idrissi said. "We have denied this report and said that we do not have any information on the fate of the airman Arad," he told reporters during a visit to the southern port city of Sidon.
Several Israeli officials, media and pressure groups have said any prisoner swap deal should include Arad.
At the top of Hizbollah's list of detainees it wants freed are Hizbollah official Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid and guerrilla commander Mustafa al-Dirani, whose group first captured Arad.
Israel, which pulled its troops out of southern Lebanon in 2000 under pressure from Hizbollah, kidnapped Obeid and Dirani from their homes over a decade ago as bargaining chips for information on Arad.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RDNAXJT5M5TJ4CRBAEKSFFA?type=worldNews&storyID=3597374