Israel Frees 51 Arab Prisoners : Mideast: Officials act after receiving proof that a soldier captured in Lebanon is dead. The U.N. mediation success raises U.S. hopes for release of Western hostages.

In the first breakthrough for the United Nations hostage mediation effort, Israel released 51 Lebanese prisoners and returned the bodies of nine Hezbollah guerrillas to Lebanon on Wednesday after receiving “irrefutable proof” that an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon is dead.

U.S. sources close to the mediation effort said they expect the Israeli move to lead soon to the release of another Western hostage held by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim extremists in Lebanon.

The Bush Administration expressed cautious optimism that the release would have “helpful” ramifications for the 10 remaining Western hostages, five of them Americans.

“We do think that this is a positive step,” said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. “We are hopeful that it does facilitate the growth of confidence among all the parties in the Middle East.”

The leader of a pro-Iranian extremist group in Lebanon predicted new movement on the hostage issue. “I expect Islamic groups holding the hostages to free some of them in return for the release of some of the (Arab) strugglers and the hand-over of the bodies,” Hussein Moussawi, leader of the Islamic Amal, told Reuters news service in Lebanon.

After a monthlong impasse, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar’s first success was the product of intense behind-the-scenes mediation that gave the two biggest players in the hostage drama--Iran and Israel--an incentive to act.

After the release of Briton John McCarthy and American Edward A. Tracy in early August, pro-Iranian Shiite extremists in Lebanon said they would not free any more hostages until some of the 375 Arab prisoners held by Israel or its surrogate Lebanese militia were released.

But Israel said it would not free any Arabs until it received proof of the status of seven Israeli troops captured in Lebanon since 1982.

The logjam was broken when Israel received evidence through U.N. mediators that Rachamim Alsheikh, missing in Lebanon since 1986, is, in fact, dead. An Israeli military communique issued Wednesday did not specify the nature of the proof. It said the information provided on another Israeli soldier who was with Alsheikh, Yossi Fink, is “insufficient” to confirm his fate.

But the proof involving Alsheikh led Israel to release the 51 Arabs, including five women, held in Khiam prison by an Israeli-backed militia in a security enclave along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

“We are taking this step to help Javier Perez de Cuellar in his efforts that he is making now concerning the Western hostages because it has been a long time they were apart from their families and parents,” said Gen. Antoine Lahad, commander of the South Lebanon Army, the Israeli-backed militia that nominally runs Khiam prison.

In fact, the timing of the Israeli release was deliberately tied to Perez de Cuellar’s current trip to Iran. As a confidence-building measure, the U.N. secretary general had asked Israel to release some of the Arab prisoners under its control during his current four-day visit to Tehran, according to U.S. sources close to the mediation effort.

Perez de Cuellar apparently hopes that the Israeli gesture will provide him with leverage to get more information on the status of some or all of the six other missing Israelis to accelerate the pace of his mediation--and the releases of all those who are detained.

An Israeli military communique said pointedly: “Israel believes and hopes this humanitarian gesture will help the secretary general forge a solution to the Western hostages. Israel is closely following the secretary general and . . . expects further progress soon.”

The information-for-prisoners swap was an intricately orchestrated first step in what U.S. sources said they expect to be a phased, tit-for-tat release of the Western hostages, more than 320 remaining Arab prisoners under Israel’s control and the Israeli soldiers or their remains.

Israeli hostage mediator Uri Lubrani told reporters Wednesday that the process “cannot be done in one step” and that Israel would respond in kind to news of its troops taken since Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Moussawi, the leader of the pro-Iranian group in Lebanon, agreed that a final resolution to the nine-year drama would occur in phases. “I think the solution of the hostage problem will be gradual, with Islamic groups releasing some hostages in return for a move reciprocated by the other side, and so on, until all the hostages and prisoners are free,” he said.

Perez de Cuellar’s mere presence in Tehran is considered a major boost to the U.N. mediation with Iran, Israel and various Lebanese militias. Iran has long sought recognition for its role in previous hostage releases and, more recently, its neutrality during the Persian Gulf War as steps warranting acceptance by the international community.

The high-powered visit by a U.N. secretary general is, in effect, part of the quid pro quo for Iran’s intervention with the Lebanese extremist cells holding hostages. The breakthrough Wednesday coincided with Perez de Cuellar’s talks with Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has repeatedly called for an end to the hostage saga.

The post-Khomeini regime hopes that the publicity surrounding the secretary general’s trip will help it shed its image as a pariah state. Tehran also hopes that its new pragmatism will open up channels to Western credit, technology and expertise for reconstruction.

Officially, Perez de Cuellar is visiting Iran to hold talks on outstanding obstacles in formally ending the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, U.N. efforts to end Afghanistan’s civil war, security arrangements in the Persian Gulf--and finally, the hostage situation.

But even Tehran has made little attempt to hide the pivotal hostage issue. Perez de Cuellar’s visit is scheduled to include talks with the families of four Iranians abducted in Lebanon in 1982, an event that marked the beginning of the foreign hostage abductions.

The U.N. mediation effort could ultimately involve almost 400 people.

Hostage Diplomacy

Here is a brief look at recent developments in the hostage situation:

Aug. 6--Islamic Jihad, the group holding Americans Terry A. Anderson and Thomas Sutherland, issues a statement saying it will send an envoy with “an extremely important message” to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar within 48 hours.

Aug. 8--British hostage John McCarthy is freed. French aid worker Jerome Leyraud is kidnaped in Beirut. A group called the Organization for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights claims responsibility and says it will kill Leyraud if another Westerner is freed.

Aug. 11--Leyraud is released. U.S. hostage Edward A. Tracy is freed in Beirut.

Aug. 12--Letter from Lebanese kidnapers to U.N. secretary general offers to trade Western hostages for the freedom of “all detainees” worldwide.

Sept. 10--Perez de Cuellar goes to Iran to seek Iranian help in freeing the hostages.

Sept. 11--Israel releases 51 Arab prisoners and the bodies of nine Arab guerrillas, as demanded by pro-Iranian groups, after receiving confirmation that an Israeli serviceman missing in Lebanon is dead. Israel said it released the prisoners in recognition of the U.N. chief’s efforts to secure a broad-based hostage deal.

Source: Associated Press