Father Optimistic on 2 Beirut Hostages

Lebanese Defense Minister Adel Osseiran said Sunday that he was “very optimistic” that kidnapers would release his son and U.S. journalist Charles Glass shortly.

Osseiran spoke after Syria’s chief of military intelligence in Lebanon, Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan, held a closed-door conference with Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, spiritual guide for the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militants of Hezbollah, or Party of God.

Earlier, Syria rejected an offer by Muslim kidnapers to release Ali Osseiran and his driver, police Sgt. Suleiman Salman, in exchange for keeping Glass, sources said.

The command of Syria’s 7,500-strong army contingent in Muslim West Beirut insisted that all three captives be freed quickly and unconditionally, the sources said.

Kidnapers Warned

“The Syrians also warned that they would stiffen their stance by demanding the surrender of the kidnapers themselves unless the three captives are released soon,” one source said. The source didn’t say what Syria meant by “soon.”

Also on Sunday, Nabih Berri, head of the pro-Syrian Shia Amal militia, ordered his men to fan out across West Beirut to find Glass and Osseiran. Berri is the Lebanese justice minister.

A Syrian military source said it has been learned that Glass, 36, a former ABC television correspondent; Osseiran, 40, and Salman, 26, were in “good health.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions. But Osseiran’s father repeatedly has blamed the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most militant Shia faction.

Assad Representative

The Syrian military source said that Kenaan arrived Sunday from Damascus to meet with Fadlallah.

“Kenaan has been dispatched from Damascus at the personal order of (Syrian) President Hafez Assad to ask Fadlallah to use his influence to reach a solution to this crisis,” the source said.

He said Syria has taken the position that Glass and his two companions were kidnaped in a Syrian-controlled area, and Damascus therefore is demanding that the three be released together.

Fourteen kidnapers grabbed Glass, Osseiran and Salman last Wednesday on a coastal highway in Beirut’s southern suburb of Ouzai.

Nine Americans Held

Glass, the ninth American among the 25 foreign hostages believed being held in West Beirut, is a Los Angeles native who left ABC television a few months ago to write a book about the Middle East. Osseiran is an engineer.

Glass was the first foreigner to be abducted since the Syrian army took control of Beirut’s Muslim sector Feb. 22 in an effort to end three years of militia anarchy.

Syria, with 30,000 troops in Lebanon in addition to the force in West Beirut, is Lebanon’s main power broker. The kidnapings are seen as a major challenge to Syria’s attempts to pacify the city.

The elder Osseiran, who heads a prominent conservative Shia Muslim clan, said Syrian President Assad assured him that his troops in Beirut have been ordered to “do the utmost” to ensure the release of the men.