By NNN-KUNA,
Beirut : An official ceremony was held here Wednesday to welcome home the five Lebanese freed under a Hezbollah-Israel prisoner swap deal.
The ceremony was attended by Lebanese leaders, senior officials and faction chiefs.
Under the prisoner swap deal, five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters were sent to Lebanon while Hezbollah handed over the bodies of Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were captured in 2006.
Addressing the ceremony at the Rafik Hariri Airport, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman welcomed the five ex-prisoners to Beirut as “resistance fighters coming back from the prisons of the occupier”.
He said that joy would be complete when Lebanon regains sovereignty over the still occupied Lebanese territories.
Earlier, hundreds of spectators in southern Lebanon cheered as the men were given a hero’s welcome by Hezbollah leaders.
Martial music blared as the five, dressed in Hezbollah combat uniform, walked down a red carpet in Naqoura.
The ceremony was also attended by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and a UN envoy, as well as religious leaders.
The freed prisoners are expected to be taken to Southern Beirut where Hezbollah would hold a mass ceremony to be addressed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Meanwhile, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Benita Ferrero-Walder hailed the prisoner swap deal as a positive step towards a full implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
The commissioner also expected that the deal would lead to more regional stability.