Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claims the German mediator in the Gilad Shalit talks has given Israel an ultimatum by which the state has three weeks to approve a prisoner swap deal to retrieve the kidnapped soldier.

A Hamas source told Ynet that the German mediator blames Israel for hesitating and delaying the deal.

Abbas told the Egyptian Al-Ahram in an interview Saturday, "I have learned from Israel, and not from anyone else, that the German mediator has allotted a limited time period after which he will stop mediating between the sides if the prisoner swap deal is not completed."

When asked to describe the length of time allotted to Israel Abbas answered, "Two or three weeks."

Abbas also claimed he had asked Israel a number of times to release Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Saadat, who headed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in order to complete the deal.

He said Hamas had been wrong to assume he had opposed Barghouti's release in fear that the latter would compete against him in Palestinian elections...

The execution of the prisoner exchange will be monitored closely from the Lebanese side of the Rosh Hanikra border crossing by its main shepherd: the UN-appointed mediator Gerhard Conrad. Little is known about the mystery man, who is in his forties. Even in Germany, where he holds a senior post in his country's foreign intelligence agency, BND, few know much about him. Before his name was publicized in Israel a little over a year ago, the German public was unaware of his existence.

Officially, Conrad's mediation effort has been on behalf of the UN secretary general, because the return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser is part of Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the Second Lebanon War.

Conrad learned Arabic in Damascus as part of his intelligence training. In fact, he is among the very few Arabic speakers in the BND. That training destined him to serve in the agency's Middle East department. Among other missions, he was sent in 1998 to serve, under diplomatic cover, as the BND's official representative in Damascus, which role included responsibility for Lebanon. Consequently, he is well informed regarding developments in both countries, and has met several times with Hezbollah leaders, including the movement's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah.

Conrad's wife also works for the BND, and the couple worked together in Damascus.

Since the 1990s, Conrad has played a part in every prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah in which the BND and German officials were involved as mediators...