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| 16/06/2008 "The prisoners are our commitment and Samir Kintar and his brothers will very soon return to Lebanon," Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah vowed on May 26, commemorating the eighth anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Day.
Given media reports, Sayyed Nasrallah's "very soon" seems to be closer than anyone expected; Monday's reports said that Samir Kintar and his brothers might return to their country by the end of the week, one month before of commemorating the second anniversary of the Israeli defeat in the July 2006 war against Lebanon.
The Lebanese daily As-Safir quoted military sources as saying that they expect a swap deal to take place between July 20 and 25. According to the sources, Hezbollah would, under the deal, return to Israel captured soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in exchange for Kintar and other detainees.
In the same context, United Nations sources told Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar that such exchange was likely to be carried out at the end of the week, on Friday or Sunday. The sources did not relay any other details about the swap except for the fact that it had been agreed upon after indirect negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah through German mediation.
For its part, the London-based daily As-Sharqalawsat quoted senior Israeli government officials as saying that a prisoner exchange of the captured soldiers for Kintar would be carried out in the next few days. It also reported that Kintar's family has begun to prepare for his imminent return to Lebanon
In another sign that a prisoner swap with Hezbollah could soon be in the offing, Ofer Dekel, Israel's chief negotiator for securing the release of the captured Israeli soldiers, was in Europe for talks with the German mediator. A meeting between the two is expected to center on advancing the deal, in return for the release of Kintar and a number of Hezbollah fighters.
Meanwhile, Israeli daily Ha'aretz said that the "price being demanded for the the return of the Israeli soldiers is not impossibly high, and the chances that the deal can be done are reasonable." The daily noted the release of the two soldiers "appears to be a goal that can be achieved" from Israeli PM Ehud Olmert's point of view.
At the meantime, Kintar was reported as certain that he will be included in any prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbullah, his Israeli lawyer Yamen Zedan said. "What I can say with certainty is that we are sure, and we know… that there will not be a deal without Samir," Zedan, who has represented Kintar for nearly six months, told Israeli daily "The Jerusalem Post."
Samir's brother, Bassam, told Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar that his family was ready to receive Samir. He reported wide preparations for celebrating his brother's return. Bassam stressed that the family has complete confidence in the resistance and its ability to achieve Samir Kintar's freedom. | 
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