Hezbollah Official: Kuntar Was in Touch with Sayyed Nasrallah since Nineties

Lebanon: Martyr Samir Kuntar (L), Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah (R)

Hezbollah Liaison and Coordination Head, Wafik Safa, pointed out on Tuesday that martyr Samir Kuntar had been in touch with the Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah since the nineties.

During an exclusive interview with Al-Manar TV, Safa noted that Kuntar, aka Dean of Prisoners in Israeli Jails, played as a mediator between the party of Resistance and the prisoners in the Zionist jails.

Kuntar, who remained in the Zionist jails in occupied Palestine more than 30 years, was not included in the 2004 swap deal between Hezbollah and the Zionist entity for certain reasons, Safa underlined, revealing that a key part of the negotiation was Hezbollah's insistence that Kuntar must be included in the deal.

"Kuntar was monitoring the situation and he was aware of the talks. He had an honorable position in this regard through a letter he sent to Sayyed Nasrallah, in which he stressed that what had been reached to was an achievement, and called for the completion of the deal without listing his name," Safa said.

Safa indicated that following the Zionist war on Lebanon in July 2006, negotiations of the second swap deal lasted for two years, noting that martyr Kuntar was aware of that the Zionist authorities had bowed to his demands to be on the list of the deal, but Hezbollah was insisting that the list should include Arab and Palestinian prisoners.

"Kuntar was not in a hurry to be released but requested that we press in order to achieve this demand," Safa explained.

Martyr Samir Kuntar was killed by a Zionist strike on the Syrian city of Jaramana on Sunday. He spent more than 30 years in the enemy jails and was set free in a swap deal between Hezbollah and the Zionist entity in July 2008.