General Security Chief, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, stressed that the meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the two abducted Bishops was positive and productive.

General Security Chief, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, stressed that the meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the two abducted Bishops was positive and productive.

In remarks to Lebanese daily as-Safir, Ibrahim said that, like previous meeting, President Assad showed openness in order to help finalize this issue, as he voiced readiness to do whatever it could contribute to the release of two abducted Bishops in Syria, Boulos Yazigi and Youhanna Ibrahim.

Commenting on criticisms by March 14 factions over Ibrahim’s reported meeting with major general Ali Mamlouk, who is wanted by Lebanese judiciary, the General Security chief said: “I won’t be engaged in an controversy with anybody.”

“However, I would like to assure that I’m working originally under the directions of the political authority which I inform it with what I do.”

He regretted that these sides “based their stances on information reported by media, “whereas nobody knows whom I meet on the security level in Syria.”

Meanwhile, Ibrahim stressed that he is “among officials who know very well their limits and are keen to work in accordance with law.”
“I am not willing to do all what could contradict these principles,” he added, according to as-Safir.

Nine Lebanese pilgrims, who were abducted in May 2012 by Syria militants, were released last Saturday in exchange for two Turkish pilots held in Lebanon since August.

Major General Ibvrahim has been tasked by the Lebanese government with pursuing the issue of the Lebanese abductees in Syria, including the nine pilgrims, Hassan al-Meqdad and the two Bishops.

After the pilgrims arrived in Beirut International airport on Saturday, Ibrahim, who accompanied them from Istanbul, said the delight will be completed when the two abducted Bishops will return to Lebanon along with others who have been abducted by Syria militants.

For his part, caretaker interior minister Marwan Charbel said in an interview on Tuesday that the two Bishops were held by a Chechen armed group in one of Aleppo’s suburbs in Syria.