Families of kidnapped pilgrims suspend protests

Families of the 11 Lebanese kidnapped in Syria have suspended their protests after holding a crucial meeting with the director general of General Security Wednesday. Sheikh Abbas Zogheib, tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up on the issue of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria, told Voice of Lebanon radio station the meeting Wednesday with Brig. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim was a positive one. “The families of the kidnapped suspended the deadline for escalating their street action after receiving positive feedback from the director general of General Security Brig. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim,” Zogheib said. Earlier this week, families of the kidnapped issued a 48-hour deadline for the government to resolve the issue before they escalate their protests. Syrian rebels kidnapped 11 Lebanese men along with their families near Aleppo two months ago. Shortly after their kidnapping, the rebels released the families but held the men. Sources told the LBCI TV channel Wednesday that Ibrahim has told the families that he will travel to Turkey and possibly to Qatar to help release the kidnapped Lebanese from Syria. Reports have been released in the past two months on the whereabouts of the kidnapped men and the demands of their abductors in Syria. The kidnappers have sent video footage on several occasions to the Doha-based Al-Jazeera showing the kidnapped in good health. Last week, the weekly New Yorker magazine reported that kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims were being held by the Syrian opposition in Azaz, a small town close to the Syrian-Turkish border. The New Yorker reporter, who met with the captors and several of the kidnapped Lebanese, said the kidnappers wanted to send a message to the Shiite community in Lebanon to help change Hezbollah’s stance toward the developments in Syria. From DailyStar