VARIOUS: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah describes the deal done with Israel to exchange bodies and information

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah describes the deal done with Israel to exchange bodies and information. Nasrallah says the exchange may pave the way for future exchanges of prisoners with Israel. There is "positive progress" in talks to free two captured Israeli soldiers in a prisoner swap deal, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday (October 16). Nasrallah, speaking on Hezbollah owned Al- Manar Television, explained how Hezbollah worked with International mediators on an exchange of two bodies of Hezbollah fighters and one captured fighter from Israel in return for a body of a missing Israeli and a "collection of information." The international mediators worked with Israeli authorities to secure the deal. "From the side that deals with us, from good will gestures, (we) deliver the body of the settler and give a collection of information about a specific case. In return, we were informed that the Israeli initiative is to release one of the five prisoners, because the name has not been specified in the beginning - the release of one of the prisoners who have been captured during the July aggression, and the bodies of two martyrs," Nasrallah said. The Hezbollah leader said the deal may open a pathway for future exchanges, which could potentially include the release, or information about two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in an incident that ignited the July 2006 Israel - Lebanon war. There has been virtually no information released on the fate of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. "I can say for the first time that there is positive progress within these firm foundation negotiations, that is linked to the two Israeli soldiers and the prisoners," added Nasrallah in a live speech on al-Manar TV. The swap came four days after Germany said it would grant early release to an Iranian and a Lebanese who were given life prison sentences for the 1992 assassination of a group of dissident Kurdish leaders at a restaurant in Berlin. Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel last exchanged prisoners in 2004 when Israel released more than 400 Lebanese and other Arab prisoners for an Israeli businessman and the remains of three soldiers.

ITN Source | October 17, 2007

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