A senior General Security source told The Daily Star newspaper that the Turkish side that is in contact with Syrian rebels holding nine Lebanese hostages has yet to respond to last week's release of Syrian female detainees by the regime.
The source, who asked to remain anonymous, refused to give the exact number of released women.
"The move came as a result of contacts between [General Security head] Maj. Gen. [Abbas] Ibrahim and the Syrian authorities. It came as a goodwill gesture on the occasion of the month of Ramadan," he said. "But we received no answer from the Turkish side so far."
The source said that rebels originally offered to swap the nine kidnapped Lebanese for around 1,500 Syrian women they said were being detained in Syrian prisons.
"They are giving successive lists of names of female detainees to Turkish authorities. The first list they provided included names of female detainees who had already left prison and others were for women who were not held at all," he said.
The source said that rebels were providing the lists of detainees they demanded to be released in installments, which was slowing the process.
"They are saying they have 1,500 names. So if they keep sending us the lists in installments as they are doing now, then this case will not be resolved," the source said.
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