Hezbollah Adviser Offers Deal to Help Free Hostages

The spiritual adviser of the group believed to sponsor hostage holders said today that he will help free Western captives if the West does the same for Arab prisoners in Israel.

“Let us get to an agreement together so that each side would use his own means and influence to end the crisis of the hostages, all hostages, and resolve the problem of Arab prisoners,” said Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who advises the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

“I am ready to help free the Western hostages provided Western countries help release Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in Israel.”

He spoke at Bir el Abed mosque in the Shiite Muslim slums of south Beirut during ceremonies commemorating the most revered Shiite saint, Imam Hussein bin Ali, grandson of the prophet Mohammed.

Eight Americans and eight other Western hostages are held in Lebanon, most of them by radical Shiite groups believed associated with Hezbollah, whose name means Party of God.

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said: “It’s an interesting statement. We don’t have any comment on it. . . . We hope it signals their desire to release the hostages.

“We would like to lower our voices a little and let these issues play out for a few days and see what happens,” he said of the Bush Administration’s position.

Fadlallah’s statement seemed to corroborate an offer made earlier this month by the captors of Joseph Cicippio after they suspended a death sentence against the American hostage.

They said they would free Cicippio if Israel released 450 Arab prisoners and allowed 55 Palestinian deportees to return to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.