Negotiations for the release of the Orthodox Syrian Metropolitan of Aleppo, Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim – reportedly being held by members of the so-called Islamic State in their last stronghold around the village Baghouz in eastern Syria – are underway, according to a Syrian Orthodox priest in Germany.
The priest, Samuel Gümüs, made the comments to a Lebanese newspaper, reports Agenzia Fides, days after Kurdish sources were quoted as saying that kidnapped Roman Jesuit Father Paolo Dall’Oglio was also among those being held in the area around Baghouz.
Fr Gümüs, who works in pastoral care among Syrian Orthodox communities in Germany, told the paper that the release of Mar Gregorios was being discussed as part of “negotiations currently conducted by the democratic forces of Syria and by the forces of the Allied coalition”, according to Fides. But the newspaper added that the veracity of the information is difficult to ascertain.
Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim disappeared on 22nd April, 2013 together with Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo, Boulos al-Yazigi (who is not mentioned in the statements attributed to Fr Gümüs), when travelling near Syria’s border with Turkey.
Since then, no group operating has officially claimed the kidnapping of the two Metropolitan Bishops, reports Fides.
In August, 2017, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, said in a speech broadcast by Lebanese TV that he had asked about the fate of the two archbishops during negotiations with some emissaries of IS, who, according to Nasrallah, at that time had denied any useful information regarding their disappearance.
Fr Paolo Dall’Oglio was abducted in Syria in July, 2013.
