Russia’s top Muslim cleric has agreed to help the wife and Durban-based parents of abducted Israeli soldier, Ehud Goldwasser, find out if he is still alive, Daily Online reported.

The family recently met the head of the Council of Muftis in Russia, Sheikh Ravil Gaynutdin at his office in Moscow and appealed to him for help.

Hezbollah militants kidnapped Goldwasser and fellow soldier Eldad Regev on July 12 in a cross border raid into Israel. Their capture sparked a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in which thousands of tons of artillery were lobbed both ways across the border. The war eventually ended in a United Nations-brokered ceasefire.

Ehud Goldwasser spent his formative years in Durban, where his parents, Miki and Shlomo, still live. They have returned temporarily to Israel as the base for their endeavours to find him and secure his release.

The Goldwassers handed the mufti a Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) card for Ehud.

“I don’t dare ask you to work toward their release, which of course is our deepest wish,” Miki Goldwasser told Gaynutdin.

“In the initial stage, we will settle for a sign from someone reliable who can confirm to us that the boys are alive.” The appeal echoes a similar call the family made a few weeks ago to the South African government.

She said the family was not pinning its hopes on the mufti.

He promised to use all his connections to bring a swift end to the abductions, but did not go as far as to say he would initiate a meeting with Hezbollah. But he did say he would gladly speak to any member who approached him.

“Islam is a religion that demands the preservation of the honour, health and welfare of prisoners,” he told them.

“We are greatly saddened that there are those among us who claim that suicide is a religious act that is rewarded,” he added.

The meeting took place at the initiative of Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar who praised the good relationship between Muslims and Jews in Russia. However, there have been some anti-Semitic incidents, most notably a bloody knife attack at a Moscow synagogue earlier this year.

Russia and Israel are celebrating 15 years of renewed diplomatic relations. Israel views Russia as a potentially valuable mediator in relations with the Arab world and Iran. One in six Israelis comes from the former Soviet Union.

Relations between the two countries were cut when the Soviet Union threw its support behind Arab states, after the 1967 Six Day War. They were only restored under Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.

Popularity: 1% [?]