Hezbollah rules out unconditional release of abducted soldiers

[bemildred]

A Hezbollah cabinet minister said Wednesday that there will be no unconditional release of two captured Israel Defense Forces soldiers, and that the group will only free them as part of a prisoner exchange.

"There will be no unconditional release. This is not possible," Minister of Energy and Hydraulic Resources Mohammed Fneish, one of two Hezbollah cabinet ministers, told reporters in Beirut.

"There should be an exchange through indirect negotiations. This is the principle to which Hezbollah and the resistance are adhering," he said.

Reservist soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah guerrillas in a July 12 cross-border raid, sparking the 34-day conflict ended by an August 14 United Nations-brokered cease-fire.

Haaretz