Al Nusra accuses Hezbollah of obstructing the negotiations

The Al-Qaida linked al-Nusra Front accused the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group of obstructing the negotiations over the release of the soldiers and police and urged the Lebanese authorities Saturday to resume the negotiations .

In a video posted on YouTube, al-Nusra accused Lebanese authorities of allowing Hezbollah to block negotiations for the release of the hostages.

” Hezbollah is behind the failure of the negotiations ,” the video charges.

Al-Nusra has previously demanded that in return for the release of the hostages , Hezbollah must end its intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad’s regime and that Lebanon must free Islamists jailed in Roumieh prison. It also threatened to kill all the hostages if its demands are not met

So far Al-Nusra Front killed one of the hostages while the Jihadists of the Islamic State group beheaded two.

The Lebanese government has so far rejected the al-Qaida affiliate’s terms and asked Qatar and Turkey to help free the hostages . Qatar tried but so far it did not succeed . Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised Lebanese PM Tammam Salam last wednesday to mediate between Lebanon and the kidnappers, but according to Al Safir newspaper he reneged yesterday on his promise

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has urged the government not to cave in to the demands of the abductors but at the same time he denied obstructing efforts to free the chostages.

The failure to release the captives so far has stirred widespread anger among the Lebanese, and specially among the relatives of the hostages who have been blocking major roads to pressure the Lebanese authorities to negotiate the release of their loved ones.

Health minster Wael Abu Faour, who represents PSP chief Walid Jumblatt in the cabinet urged the government today to speed up the negotiations in order to free the hostages