Doha: Diplomacy by Qatar had succeeded in bringing about the biggest prisoner exchange in Syria’s 21-month old conflict, which saw 2,139 detainees being freed by the regime in Damascus, while Syrian rebels freed 48 Iranian nationals detained by them for five months, an official source at Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
The official told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Iran had requested Qatar to mediate for the release of Iranian nationals detained in Syria. During three months of negotiations, Qatari diplomacy faced many hurdles that almost wrecked the efforts, the official said, adding Qatari diplomacy overcame the hurdles to achieve the humanitarian objective.
