British diplomat meets Palestinian PM over kidnapped BBC man

A senior British diplomat and BBC officials met Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas today to push for the release of a BBC journalist kidnapped three weeks ago.

The meeting between Haniyeh and British Consul General Richard Makepeace was the first face-to-face encounter between a diplomat from an EU country and a Hamas official of the Palestinians’ recently-formed national unity government.

BBC reporter Alan Johnston, from Argyllshire, was seized by gunmen outside his Gaza City apartment ON March 12.

“We will not spare any effort to bring back the journalist, the friend, the human being to his family,” Mr Abbas told reporters in Gaza City.

“God willing, we can have progress in the soonest possible time,” Makepeace said in Arabic during a press conference with Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad.

Mr Hamad said Haniyeh briefed Mr Makepeace on Palestinian security forces’ efforts to free Johnston. He said special units were leading the search.

“We prefer to deal with it peacefully without using violence, but we are discussing all the choices,” Mr Hamad said. “But we really want to bring him back alive and safe and not harmed.”