Israel Proposes Trading Prisoners With Shiites

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel today proposed trading all his country’s Shiite Muslim captives for all captured Israeli soldiers and foreign hostages held by Shiite groups in Lebanon.

Israeli officials said they had received no immediate confirmation of a claim from a Shiite group that it executed a U.S. Marine hostage to retaliate for Israel’s abduction of a Shiite cleric.

But they reiterated Rabin’s offer, made earlier in the day.

“Israel repeats its call for the release of Israeli and other hostages held by Shiite groups in Lebanon. Israel is offering to trade prisoners, detainees and hostages,” Rabin told reporters in Tel Aviv.

His statement, read from a prepared text, was also broadcast on state-run Israel radio. Avi Pazner, spokesman for Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, said the offer was made on behalf of the government.

“According to this proposal, all the Israeli prisoners and foreign hostages held by Shiite groups in Lebanon would be swapped for all the Shiite prisoners kept by Israel, including Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, Jawad Kasfi and others,” he said. “The exchange would be conducted through the International Red Cross according to the procedures accepted in such cases.”

Obeid is an influential Shiite Muslim cleric kidnaped by Israeli commandos Friday in south Lebanon, and Kasfi is another Lebanese Shiite seized by Israeli forces in Lebanon last December.

Security sources estimate 50 to 60 Shiite Muslims from Lebanon are held in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia, which helps patrol Israel’s self-declared security zone in south Lebanon, holds about 300 Shiites in a prison at Khiam in south Lebanon. It was not immediately clear if this group would be part of the deal.

Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said earlier today that Israeli officials hoped that Obeid can be swapped for three Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon since 1986.