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| Mother Pelegia Sayyaf |
Syrian opposition forces are offering to swap some 12
Orthodox nuns they are holding in the Qalamoun Mountains range for 1,000 women
prisoners detained by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
News of the proposed exchange makes today’s
front-page lead of the respectable Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat.
The paper’s correspondent
in Antakya quotes an “Ahrar al-Qalamoun Brigade” spokesperson as saying the
nuns abducted earlier this month from the predominantly Christian village of
Maaloula “are now in a safe place. They won’t be released before a number of
conditions are met – chiefly, the release of 1,000 Syrian women prisoners
languishing in Syrian regime lockups.”
An Ahrar al-Qalamoun Brigade spokesperson, AKA
Muhammad Abul-Feda, tells Asharq Alawsat,
“Our demands were relayed to the Syrian regime via the Vatican following a
satphone call by Mother Pelegia Sayyaf to Rome.”
Mother Pelegia Sayyaf is the abbess of St. Thekla (a disciple of St. Paul who faced a heroic and miraculous
martyrdom) in Maaloula (which means “entrance” in Aramaic).
Some
of Maaloula’s residents still speak a version of Aramaic, a biblical language
spoken by Jesus.
Abul-Feda
tells Asharq Alawsat the rebel
demands were jointly set by Ahrar
al-Qalamoun Brigade and Jabhat al-Nusra, adding:
“The Vatican had asked my brigade to move the sisters
to a Christian family’s home in the nearby town of Yabroud. The request was
turned down pending approval of our terms that have been passed on to the
regime.”
Abul-Feda said the nuns are now in a safe hideaway and
protected jointly by Ahrar al-Qalamoun Brigade and Jabhat al-Nusra.
The Saudi daily quotes other unnamed sources as
saying Jabhat al-Nusra also wants the regime to lift its blockade on food and
other supplies in Ghouta near Damascus.
Mohammed el-Zahouri, a Syrian journalist embedded
with opposition forces in Maaloula, says he saw the nuns and their valet,
Elias, “but their number is not 12 as the Vatican is claiming.”
Zahouri tells Asharq
Alawsat, “The Syrian regime is trying to kill the nuns and blame the armed
opposition for their killing. A few days ago, they escaped certain death when
their St. Thekla convent in Maaloula was hit by a government ground missile and
a round of mortar shells.”
But he is adamant the nuns “are now out of Maaloula
and out of Yabroud as well.”
Separately,
opposition activists again accused Assad forces of using poison gas in Syria’s
civil war yesterday, and said victims had been discovered with swollen limbs
and foaming at the mouth.
The
activists told Reuters two shells
loaded with gas hit a rebel-held area in the town of Nabak on a major highway
in the Qalamoun region. They reported seven casualties.
