Peres asks pontiff to help with missing soldiers

President Shimon Peres asked Pope Francis to use the power of the Vatican to help Israel locate its missing soldiers, including airman Ron Arad.

Peres issued his request during a private conversation at his Jerusalem residence on the last afternoon, of the pontiff's three-day visit to the region.

Arad was 28 when his plane was shot down over Lebanon in October 1986. He survived the crash, was captured by a Shi'ite group, Amal, who then handed him over to Hezbollah in 1988. Israel had received three letters and two photographs of Arad from this period in captivity, but no other substantive information has been obtained to prove that he survived beyond 1988.

In 2008, the UN told Israel that according to information it obtained from Hezbollah, Arad had died trying to escape in 1988. There is, however, no conclusive evidence of his death.

Also included in the request was information on three soldiers who have been missing since the June 12, 1982 battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon; Zechariah Bummel, Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz.

The two men also discussed a possible June 5 or June 6 date for Peres' visit to the Vatican to pray with Pope Francis and Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas. Pope Francis issued the invitation publicly on Sunday, once in Bethlehem and against at his welcome ceremony at Ben-Gurion airport.

On Monday, Peres told the pontiff during a public ceremony, 'I believe that your visit and call for peace will echo through the region and contribute to revitalizing the efforts to complete the peace process between us and the Palestinians, based on two states living in peace. A Jewish state - Israel. And an Arab state- Palestine.

'This solution can be reached by mutual agreement. I believe that the citizens of the region want peace. They pray for peace. They are ready for peace with their neighbors and with all the nations of our region,' Peres said.

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