30 August, 2017
The transfer has angered some in Iraq, who accused Lebanon, Hezbollah and the Syrian government of threatening Iraq's security by moving ISIS close to their border.
The main security body of the Iraqi Kurdistan region also condemned the deal, questioning the motivation of the Syrian regime and its key Lebanese ally for dealing with the jihadi group responsible for capturing swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory since 2014 and the murder of thousands.
Shiite-majority Iraq has been largely supportive of Syria and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in their battle against the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group and shared enemy. This denial comes despite the two forces launching operations simultaneously - the Lebanese military from the east and Hezbollah from the west.
At the last stage of the deal, the two sides would exchange the bodies for the convoy of militants at a transit point in Syria, Nasrallah said.
Colonel Ryan said the agreement undermined efforts to fight the Islamic State in Syria.
"We do not bargain".
"The return of Daesh [IS] militants in air-conditioned cars to their countries is permissible because Lebanon adheres to the philosophy of a state that does not exact revenge", Lebanese intelligence chief and top negotiator Major General Abbas Ibrahim said on Monday in a radio interview.
Hezbollah believes that the war in Syria is an Israeli and American conspiracy to unseat what it terms as an "Axis of Resistance" against Zionist Israel. "So if we do identify and find ISIS fighters who have weapons - and like I said, we can discriminate between civilians and ISIS fighters - we will strike when we can".
The province has been held by Isis since 2014.
Daesh and other terror outfits broke into Lebanon in 2014, taking over the border town of Arsal. "Hezbollah's answer was categorical, that is, any solution, whether it be partial or whole, must first include the fate of the soldiers".
Ibrahim, the Lebanese general, said the troops were nearly certainly dead after recovering remains thought to belong to them.
Earlier this month, Nusra Front militants and a Syrian rebel group withdrew from their footholds along the border after accepting similar evacuation deals.
It ended ISIS's presence on the Lebanese border with Syria where the military had been battling ISIS jihadis for years. Hezbollah managed to inflict huge losses on terrorists linked to al-Nusra Front.
Inside Syria, ISIS is retreating on many fronts, losing territory to separate offensives, including by the Russian-backed Syrian army and USA -backed militias.
