A U.N. hostage negotiator arrived in Syria on Saturday, and hopes rose that the ordeal of the last two Western captives in Lebanon was drawing to an end.
The envoy, Giandomenico Picco, was instrumental in obtaining freedom last year for the last American and British hostages, who were turned over to their governments in the Syrian capital, Damascus.Picco was taken to an undisclosed destination immediately after his plane from Frankfurt, Germany, touched down, said airport sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Syrian security officers at the airport kept reporters and photographers away from the plane.
Picco's trip to Syria came amid newspaper reports in Beirut predicting that the two German hostages, Heinrich Struebig, 51, and Thomas Kemptner, 30, would be released Sunday or Monday.
Unlike the American and British hostages, who were kidnapped for political reasons, the German relief workers were abducted to obtain the release of two Lebanese Shiite Muslim brothers jailed in Germany for terrorism.
Germany has refused to free the two, Mohammed Ali Hamadi and Abbas Hamadi.
Picco, an Italian diplomat, was in the Middle East recently, but U.N. officials would not disclose details of his activities. He also kept a low profile on previous missions.
Damascus has been a frequent transit point for former hostages and officials involved in their release. Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, has been trying to help end the hostage saga as part of its effort to restore order in that country after 16 years of civil war.
In Beirut, the As-Safir newspaper, which is close to Syria and Iran, said an unidentified Iranian envoy visited the Lebanese capital in the past two days and conveyed to the kidnappers "positive proposals regarding the future of the Hamadi brothers."
The report said Germany raised the possibility that the prisoners might be held together in one prison and allowed regular family visits.
The kidnappers said in a statement last Saturday that Struebig and Kemptner would be released "after the completion of concrete assurances" about the Hamadis. The statement did not specify the assurances demanded, but it was the first time the kidnappers did not demand the immediate release of the brothers.
Germany has repeatedly refused to swap the convicted terrorists for the German hostages, who were abducted in southern Lebanon on May 16, 1989, while on assignment with the German relief organization Asme-Humanitas.
Mohammed Ali Hamadi was sentenced to life in prison in May 1989 for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner to Lebanon, during which U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem was killed.
Abbas Hamadi was sentenced to 13 years in 1988 for his role in the Beirut kidnapping of two other Germans who were released in 1989.
A group calling itself Holy Warriors for Freedom claims it holds Struebig and Kemptner. The group is believed headed by Abdul-Hadi Hamadi, the Hamadis' elder brother and security chief for the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God.