The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Jordan's parliament said Tuesday that the country would "likely" accept a deal to release a prisoner on death row in exchange for a Japanese hostage if the swap also included Jordan's captured fighter pilot, news website JO24 reported.
Daesh has been holding Muath Kasasbeh since his plane went down more than a month ago. Attention on the group's Japanese hostage Kenji Goto has heightened since Daesh claimed in a video to have killed fellow hostage Haruna Yukawa last week. Daesh is said to want the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, who was convicted in connection with hotel bombings in Amman in 2005 that killed 60 people.
Reuters reported that Japanese officials said it is also their priority to help secure Kasasbeh's freedom. "The release of this pilot as soon a possible is also an issue for us Japanese," Yasuhide Nakayama, state minister for foreign affairs, told the news service.
